hJ 




MEMOIR 



V 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON, 



SELECTIONS FROM HIS LETTERS. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED BY THE 

ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS FOR THE DIFFUSION OF RELIGIOUS 
AND USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, 

109 North Tenth Street. 
1860. 




$S$ V 



\V 



In presenting to the public the following Memoir 
and Correspondence, it would be proper to state, 
that they have been selected from a volume pub- 
lished in London, in 1841, entitled " Extracts 
from the Letters of Jonathan Hutchinson, 
with some Brief Notices of his Life and Cha- 
racter." They are worthy of a serious and careful 
perusal, and present many instructive religious ex- 
periences, to warn and encouiage Christian travellers 
on their pilgrimage towards an eternal inheritance. 



(ii) 






MEMOIR 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 



CHAPTER I. 



Jonathan Hutchinson was born at Gedney, in 
the county of Lincoln, England, in the year 1760. 
His ancestors for many generations had occupied the 
small estate of pasture-land which he inherited from 
them, and on which he followed his only temporal 
occupation, that of a farmer. Soon after the rise of 
the religious Society of Friends, his ancestors joined 
them in Christian fellowship, and became members. 

The following allusion to the early part of his life 
is taken from a short manuscript of his own writing, 
and is all we find respecting it. 

" Though thus inheriting the privileges of rural 
retirement and the simplicity of pastoral life, — edu- 
cated too in the principles of an excellent Christian 
profession, yet that interesting and dangerous por- 
tion of my life, between leaving school and manhood, 
was strongly characterized by the sins and follies to 
which youth and inexperience are so peculiarly lia- 
ble; whilst its succeeding stages, even the most 

(3) 



4 MEMOIR OF 

happy and favored of them, have, in my own view 
at least, been remarkable for their weakness, unwor- 
thiness, and vicissitude; so much so, that throughout 
the whole of my probationary course, there have been 
certain critical and eventful periods, wherein my 
sufferings of body and mind have been such as to 
leave me but just in possession of life and sense. 
Yet on this solemn retrospect, I find nothing to com- 
plain of but fallen self, acted upon by a delusive 
world and an unwearied spiritual adversary. 

" I therefore would not ' charge God foolishly/ 
seeing that in all and through all, his kindness and 
forbearance towards me have been extended in a 
manner equally unmerited and incomprehensible to 
my own understanding j and like many other parts 
of his government, both in nature and grace, they 
appear to admit of no other possible solution than is 
to be found in this scriptural declaration — c The 
ways of the Lord are higher than our ways, and his 
thoughts than our thoughts.' 

u I do not remember having been favored in my 
early years with the tendering visitations of Divine 
love, either so often or so powerfully as we find re- 
corded of divers religious persons ; but I seem rather 
to have been left to explore in much solitude the 
depth and the misery of fallen nature in its greatest 
bitterness ; so that before I had attained the twentieth 
year of my age, the enemy of all good possessed a 
fearful ascendency over me. But whilst in many in- 
stances he led me captive at his will, yet as in the 
case of poor Job, his power was limited ; and he was 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 

not permitted; as was evidently his design, to com- 
plete the destruction both of my body and soul, 
which, by the interposing arm of Israel's God, were 
mercifully preserved and marvellously delivered from 
the last effort of his cruel and malignant grasp. 

u For after many sore and ineffectual conflicts, in 
which hope at length had taken its departure, I was 
favored with so convincing an evidence that God 
desireth not the death of a sinner, as that my heart 
was strongly inclined towards a state of subjection 
and obedience to Him. But though thus made wil- 
ling, the performances of my apprehended duty have 
ever been so poor and humiliating as to give me oc- 
casion with deep feeling to respond to this language 
of David : [ Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but 
unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy 
truth's sake.' Amen and amen ! saith a soul which 
thou hast indeed brought out of a horrible pit and 
taught to sing thy praise." 

In a letter to a friend he thus alludes to the nature 
of these conflicts : — " From early life, and before I 
could be said to be religious, either from education 
or anything else, I was deeply impressed with the 
entire spirituality of the Christian dispensation, and 
of course not very friendly to the outward rites and 
ceremonies with which even then I thought I could 
perceive its beautiful and holy simplicity had been 
encumbered and obscured. Rather than accept it 
thus aoused, overlooking, as perhaps is too often the 
case, an object near at hand, the simple profession 
in which I was born, I unhappily sought refuge in 
1* 



6 MEMOIR OF 

metaphysics and scepticism. But here, as might be 
expected, I found no rest; weary of both, namely, 
the contemplation of a religion attended with out- 
ward ordinances on one hand, and unbelief on the 
other; and still more weary of a corruption from 
which I was persuaded neither of these could set 
me free, I was at length drawn to a remembrance of 
the Saviour and his most precious promise, Matt. xi. 
28, i Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest/ In solitude and 
solicitude my heart conceived and my tongue uttered 
at the same moment this piercing cry, i Lord grant 
that a poor fugitive may enter into rest/ " 

This cry appears to have been mercifully and 
clearly answered ; but he says, "All was intelligible 
and spiritual ; not a word of sacraments, as they are 
called, nor of any other ceremonial observances." 

"From this memorable era in my experience, I 
believe I may with safety say I have never i wilfully 
departed from my God/ though the manner and de- 
gree in which my feeble nature has endeavored to 
please and serve Him frequently covers me with 
humiliation, and leaves me no shadow of excuse or 
cause for complaint in case of permitted or inflicted 
suffering. May this gracious Being of his great 
love and mercy in Christ Jesus continue to pity and 
pardon hearts which are desirous to be found doing 
his whole will in the midst of manifold tribulations 
and infirmities !" 

On another occasion, probably at a somewhat ear- 
lier period of his life, while engaged in his farming 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 7 

employments and preparing to cut some hay for the 
cattle, he records being in an agony of mental dis- 
tress^ almost driven to distraction. It was then he 
says, "The first vocal prayer I ever remember to 
have uttered was extorted from me. The purport 
of it may serve to show the darkness and doubt of 
the heart from which it burst, like water from the 
rock when smitten by the hand of Moses; it was 
brief, being comprehended in these few emphatic 
words, ( If there be a God in heaven, I pray thee 
help me/ " 

Many years afterwards, in writing to a friend who 
was under great exercise of mind, and who had 
sought his sympathy, he thus refers to this memora- 
ble incident : " The short petition, Lord ! help me," 
which thou hast mentioned as one that has some- 
times escaped thee when under deep trial, has forci- 
bly reminded me of perhaps the first fervent prayer 
I ever put up — not in a temple made with hands — - 
not in any congregation assembled for worship — but 
in solitude, under the magnificent canopy of the over- 
arching heavens, and with a retired coroer of a hay- 
stack for my altar ; here I cast myself in great agita- 
tion on my knees, and exclaimed, c If there be a God 
in Heaven, I pray thee help me/ w 

" Nor was this the only period of my life in which 
I have been thus pursued by him who is described 
as < walking about seeking whom he may devour ;' 
who was permitted to prove Job, to withstand Joshua, 
and even to tempt the dear Son of God himself; for 
since I have been more decidedly endeavoring to 



8 MEMOIR OF 

serve and to please my Creator, and to be what He 
would have me to be, I have sometimes been thus 
hunted from day to day, and from place to place. 
Once in particular I recollect, when on a little turn- 
out with two women Friends who were travelling in 
the work of the ministry, I was grievously tried with 
wandering thoughts from meeting to meeting; my 
very soul abhorred them, and at length a language 
to this effect sprang up in the secret of my heart : — 
1 If I have sinned, I pray Thee forgive me ; but if 
these things are for the trial of my faith and patience, 
I submit/ Upon this the enemy vanished, and I was 
enabled to pursue the remainder of my journey in 
satisfaction and peace ; and it is somewhat remark- 
able how useful I find the remembrance of this cir- 
cumstance, even to the present time ; so much so, 
that when followed, and might we not almost say in- 
sulted, by this malignant spirit, I can generally by 
prayer and patience foil, or at least silence him/ " 

Jonathan Hutchinson had scarcely attained man- 
hood when he underwent a very close trial in the 
death of an amiable young woman whom he tenderly 
loved. This attachment was mutual ; they were on 
the point of marriage, when she was taken ill of the 
small-pox and rapidly sunk away. She lived in a 
distant part of the country, and he scarcely reached 
her residence before her earthly race was run. Thus 
were his fond and early hopes blighted. This sorrow 
came upon him, when, to use his own words, he was 
" as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke/' but through 
the mercy of his heavenly Father the dispensation 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 9 

was blessed. He saw the vanity of his past course, 
and was enabled to take a more correct estimate of 
the end of his being, its object and its duties. "We 
have scarcely any particulars of many of the succeed- 
ing years of his life ; he settled down in his native 
village, and pursued his ordinary avocations in life 
as a grazier. His attachment to the principles and 
practices of our religious society increased, and he 
was respected and beloved by his friends ; but a full 
surrender of his heart to the government of the Holy 
Spirit had not been made, and hence he did not show 
forth that consistency of Christian character which 
was afterwards conspicuous in him. 

About ten or twelve years after this event, he en- 
tered into married life with Rachel Proctor of Selby. 
The enjoyment of this connexion was not of very 
long duration. In 1808 he was deprived of his be- 
loved companion, and left with a family of young 
children. They had been closely united, and she 
was taken from him after a very short and painful 
illness. This bereavement was acutely felt by his 
sensitive mind. 

In allusion to this afflicting loss, in writing to a 
beloved friend, he says, Cl My mind, after recovering 
its first shock, though greatly reduced, even to the 
state of considering myself little better than a reptile 
of Creation, has notwithstanding been so far preserved 
in quietude and contrition as seldom to be bereft en- 
tirely of a hope that proved like an anchor in those 
storms, which in times of outward weakness and in- 
ward trial are apt to assail, and at seasons almost 



10 MEMOIR OF 

threaten to overwhelm us. So that on taking a 
general retrospect of my life, which though obscure, 
has not been without its vicissitudes, and considering 
how often I have been mercifully preserved from 
suffering shipwreck, I can address Him who has 
helped me in this grateful language : ' For all I 
thank thee '/ but when I go into a still deeper re- 
collection of some particular circumstances which 
have attended me, and consider the chastisement I 
have justly incurred, with the violence which has 
been necessary to rend the attachments of my heart 
from this world, under these impressions I feel al- 
most strength enough to kiss the rod, and to add 
with faltering utterance, ' most for the severe/ " 

To the same friend he again writes : " I find the 
present clouded, dark, and rainy day, is but too em- 
blematic of the state of my mind, and whilst I sigh 
complaint to Him who seeth in secret, I am impelled 
by an inclination, I will not say an allowable one, to 
pour some of the effusions of a still afflicted heart 
into the sympathetic bosom of a friend. But what 
shall I say ? Privileged beyond thousands of per- 
haps more deserving fellow-creatures, can I say any- 
thing that will not border upon murmuring ? And 
ought I not rather to lay my hand upon my mouth ? 
Oh ! my dear friend, the last few months of my life, 
as thou knowest, have been fraught with vicissitudes 
the most painful to nature ; and these have produced 
an experience which, while it seems to baffle descrip- 
tion, has excited the desire that, if consistent with a 
wisdom which we both acknowledge to be inscruta- 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 11 

ble, it may never be thine. I look at my dear little 
children ; I look at the world ; I review that part of 
my pilgrimage already passed, and I anticipate, 
though with much uncertainty, that which is involved 
in futurity ; and with this affecting prospect of things 
I am ready to tremble for myself and for them. 
Under this deep and solemn exercise I think the 
greatest relief I have found, has arisen from feel- 
ing just able to make this appeal : Lord ! I acknow- 
ledge the justice of thy correcting hand, and I de- 
sire submissively to bow under the various turnings 
thereof upon me." 

The consolations of the Gospel appear to have at- 
tended on this resignation of will to the Lord, for 
the next day he records, " I found my mind on wak- 
ing early this morning covered with contrition, and 
enabled to breathe on behalf of myself and my dear 
children, for preservation from the evils of this world. 
And whilst under this exercise, the recollection that 
this was one of the petitions which our dear Lord, 
when on earth, put up for his disciples, and what he 
instructed them to pray for on their own account, I 
was encouraged upon the whole to emerge a little 
from the depth of that conflict into which my mind 
has of late been, unusually baptized, and once more 
to lift up my head in humble hope. Marvellous in- 
deed, are the dealings of the Lord with us poor crea- 
tures of the dust ! " 

In the course of the following year (1809), whilst 
attending upon that devoted servant of Christ, De- 
borah Darby, who was with her companion on a reli- 



12 MEMOIR OF 

gious visit in the neighborhood, he first spoke as a 
minister of the Gospel. In a letter addressed to a 
beloved friend, more than twenty years afterwards, 
he alludes to this memorable time. 

" I seem to recollect thy asking me, if it was not 
rather late in life when I first appeared as a minister, 
to which I think I truly replied in the affirmative ; 
it was in my forty-ninth year — nor had I, contrary 
to what appears to have been frequently the case, 
much previous intimation, that such an apprehension 
of duty would ever be laid upon me. But after many 
years of alternate sin and repentance, much self-will, 
unbelief and remorse, it pleased Infinite Wisdom to 
bring me into a state of deep and complicated afflic- 
tion, and when I had nearly lost hope, to make bare 
his holy arm for my deliverance, under a sense 
whereof, at a time unlocked for by myself, my mouth 
was first opened in a sort of burst of love and grati- 
tude nearly in the expressions of David, Psalm lxviii. 
4-5, " Sing unto God, sing praises unto his name ; ex- 
tol Him that rideth upon the heavens by his name 
Jah, and rejoice before Him — a father of the father- 
less, and a judge of the widows is God in his holy 
habitation." Immediately on resuming my seat, a 
late valued mother in our Society, Deborah Darby, 
who was beside me, knelt down and returned thanks 
that another had been added to the cloud of wit- 
nesses. 

" Since this eventful circumstance in my spiritual 
history, I have been feebly endeavoring to be faith- 
ful to the one talent thus bestowed. That it was 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 13 

only one, I conclude from the impression accompany- 
ing it, that I must be content to be a little preacher, 
and the corresponding fact of much expression at a 
time never having been required of me ; but, on the 
contrary, I have been restricted to narrow limits and 
few words. So that as far as enlargement in quan- 
tity may constitute a part of it, I have known very 
little of what a growth in the gift means; and to 
preach a long sermon from any authority or qualifi- 
cation I have hitherto experienced would be quite as 
impossible as working a miracle. For most truly in- 
deed might I adopt the language of Moses, Exodus, 
iv. 10. 

" Now this is humiliating to that part in us which 
would rather be something than nothing, but need it 
therefore be a just cause of discouragement ? I hope 
not, and I really have sometimes derived a little fur- 
ther hope from the very circumstance of being thus 
evidently circumscribed, independently of either my 
understanding or my will, remembering the apostle's 
language, i For if I do this thing willingly, I have a 
reward \ but if against my will, (I would say perhaps) 
a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me/ " 

Humility will ever be a characteristic of the true 
Christian disciple. — " The steps of a good man are 
ordered by the Lord." What a blessing to the 
church it is, when such as these are directed by the 
Holy Spirit to take the office of a preacher of the 
blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
In receiving a part of this ministry they will proba- 
bly often find it to be, to use the language of our 
2 



14 MEMOIR OF 

beloved friend in his own case, " To be most of all a 
peculiar allotment to sympathize with private indivi- 
duals in their afflictions, and to mourn in secret over 
the unfaithful or wandering mind; offering to the 
afflicted a word of consolation, and to the prodigal a 
hand of encouragement, whenever I can meet him 
as on the threshold of repentance. Ah ! how sweet 
to my soul are the too rare instances of the latter 
description ! Having been a stranger in the land 
of Spiritual Egypt, I know the heart of a stranger ; 
having myself received mercy, I can exhort those 
who have tasted it to confide therein." 

In another place, he says, " How desirable it is 
that, under any ministry, ' the heart of the righteous 
should not be made sad whom the Lord would not 
make sad/ nor i the hands of the disobedient strength- 
ened by promising him life!' And in order that 
this may not take place, it does seem very needful 
that the hearer, no less than the preacher, keep close 
to the heavenly gift or guide, that so the word de- 
livered may not only be dispensed aright, but received 
aright, and by those only to whom it belongs. For 
I believe it is by the application of the Spirit bearing 
witness with our spirits, that either reading or minis- 
try is made useful to us, whether it be in the way 
of reproof, instruction, or comfort/ " 

His ministry was much valued by his friends 
generally. " It was not in many words, but under 
a feeling of Divine requiring, and it found great 
acceptance." " It was delivered in much simplicity 
and religious feeling, short, but comprehensive, and 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 15 

in that Gospel authority which rendered it both in 
structive and edifying to the assembly. His public 
petitions at the throne of Grace were solemn and 
reverent, in few words; and being offered in the 
spirit, often tended to spread a spirit of supplication 
over the meeting." These are the testimonies of the 
Church and of his intimate brethren. 



CHAPTER II. 

In private intercourse with his friends, the society 
of Jonathan Hutchinson was much valued. His 
conversation was instructive; he was particularly 
careful not to reflect upon the failings of others ; his 
own personal trials and constitution of mind gave a 
seriousness, but not a gloom to his general deport- 
ment; and his gentle, retiring manners, blended with 
Christian independence and politeness, endeared him 
to his friends, whilst it led them to treat him with 
respect and deference. 

A near relative, who, from his early life, was per- 
mitted to share his friendship, thus writes of his 
honored uncle : — 

" To the youth he loved to address himself; and to 
this important class, both on solemn religious occa- 
sions and during the hours of social enjoyment, he 
rendered himself peculiarly attractive. His lively 
recollections of the feelings incident to their age; 
his charitable allowance for unintentional failings; 



16 MEMOIR OF 

his discriminating judgment and unceasing courtesy, 
while they commanded admiration, softened, en- 
larged, and edified the hearts of his juvenile friends. 
If they were of a literary turn, his knowledge of 
the best authors furnished him with subjects conge- 
nial to their taste. If conversation of a more general 
character prevailed, he enriched it with the observa- 
tions of a Christian philosopher, and was admirably 
qualified to give an improving direction to what 
might otherwise have degenerated into trifles. If 
rural affairs were preferred, as a practical agricul- 
turist he would often prove interesting, and seldom 
failed to secure their attention. If they enjoyed the 
beauties of nature, he enjoyed them also in no ordi- 
nary degree, and willingly imparted the fruits of his 
careful observation and pious reflection. 

" In these conversations, which I have often list- 
ened to with delight, his own admiration of a benefi- 
cent Creator, as discovered in the rich variety of his 
works, habitually led him to excite a similar feeling 
in the minds of others. A shell, a stone, or a seem- 
ingly insignificant plant, furnished him with subjects 
on which instructively to dilate ; for he loved to lead 
his hearers from created beauty, to reflect on that 
perfection which was without beginning, and will 
have no end. The productions and operations of 
nature he viewed as so many evidences of a wise and 
beneficent Being, who, though perpetually opposed 
by his rebellious creatures, has mercifully designed 
and provided for the happiness of all. Possessing 
such sentiments, it may be easily supposed that the 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 17 

rural avocations, to which he had been trained, in- 
spired him with pleasures unknown to those of less 
cultivated minds. Through the fine old ash-trees in 
front of his windows (which he sometimes appro- 
priately denominated the trees of his forefathers), 
how often have I seen, him gaze with solemn admira- 
tion on the splendor of a setting sun, or behold with 
similar emotions the magnificence of a starry sky ! " 

The following extracts from his correspondence 
present pleasing evidences of those qualities of mind 
and heart which rendered his rural home so attractive. 
His letters have all the freshness and ease which ac- 
company the outpourings of a well-stored mind in con- 
versational intercourse. 

" 1810 — 9th mo. 10. I might indeed, if not un- 
commonly dull, derive much instruction from the 
nature of my employment, of which, perhaps, few 
poetical lines are more justly descriptive than those 
which say 

" ' The farmer's life displays in every part 
A moral lesson to the sensual heart.' 

And may we not with equal truth add, spiritual in- 
struction also to the well-disposed and attentive 
mind? The husbandman, whilst exposed to the 
vicissitudes of the weather and the changes of the 
seasons, deeply interested as he is also in them, must 
have the fairest opportunity of making observations 
upon their effects. The lilies, arrayed in simple 
yet elegant loveliness, and the ravens, fed by the 
same providential hand, are familiar objects to his 
2* b 



18 MEMOIR OF 

sight. And if I may once more boast, I do not re 
member a time when I have seemed to myself more 
disposed to be instructed by what we commonly call 
the operations of nature than in the present very 
changeful summer. The late auspicious appearance 
for getting in the harvest has been particularly 
striking, being, if we may so speak, ushered in by a 
day as likely to create despondency in the farmer's 
mind as any I ever knew. What sentiments of gra- 
titude and of confidence ought such a circumstance 
to inspire, teaching us in everything to give thanks, 
and to believe, that though wintry seasons are in 
wisdom ordained, and storms permitted to interrupt 
even the tranquillity of summer's cheerful hours, 
yet these are but for an appointed time, and for a 
determinate purpose ! The sun again breaks forth 
with undiminished splendor ; the vegetable kingdom 
again expands with renewed beauty to his enlivening 
beams ; the voice of the turtle and the singing of 
birds are again heard in our land. May we then, 
under the most unfavorable appearances, learn to 
trust, and not be afraid with slavish and unprofitable 
fear. 

" I think I have discovered a considerable portion 
of anxiety to originate in those selfish regards, as to 
sufferings and enjoyments, which are incompatible 
with entire resignation to the Divine will. 

" On riding along (to my solitary habitation), I 
was permitted not only to behold, but in some mea- 
sure to appreciate the value of a privilege which, 
judging by my own experience, I should conclude 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 19 

to be rare, that of being enabled not only to offer 
sacrifice in the secret and solemn sanctuary of the 
heart, but also as inhabitants of the material world, 
to worship the Creator of all things in the august 
temple of the universe, when, divested of all narrow 
and selfish considerations, we feel so forcibly our in- 
timate union and connexion with all the workman- 
ship of the Divine hand, that without reluctance we 
can say to corruption, l Thou art my father, and to 
the worm, thou art my mother, and my sister/ In fine, 
when we so feelingly fraternize with universal nature, 
that towards existence generally our love seems un- 
limited as surrounding space: but towards man in 
particular our charity is as expansive and exalted as 
the magnificent canopy of the overarching heavens. 

"1813 — 9th mo. 18. Thou seemest not to know, 
and almost to inquire, whether I am naturally more 
prone to mourn or to rejoice; to which I am free to 
give this unequivocal answer, that there was a time 
in my life when, imitating certainly not the wisest 
conduct of him who was called the wisest king, I 
withheld not my heart from (scarcely) any joy within 
its reach ; but the time is now arrived when, for se- 
veral of my latter years, I am not conscious of having 
entirely withdrawn the same heart from any sorrow 
with which a just and wise Providence has seen meet 
to visit it. Though here I must acknowledge, that 
my endeavors after an entire acquiescence in the 
Divine Will have been attended with so much qualm 
and shrinking, as to make this important business, 
on retrospect, appear to myself to have been so far 



20 MEMOIR OP 

poorly performed, and to be yet very incomplete ; but 
I trust the disposition to press forward still remains. 
The following incident, though, of an inferior cast, 
may somewhat illustrate my meaning, and show thee 
in a few words the way wherein I am secretly striving 
to walk. I have happened this season to grow some 
wheat of a kind with which I had not before been 
acquainted. One of its properties seems to be to 
break off just under the ear, and almost before it is 
ripe. As I prefer ripe corn, I had suffered one of 
these fields to become fully so, when by some turbu- 
lent weather about two weeks since, it was computed 
I lost nearly one half. In endeavoring to reconcile 
my mind to this circumstance, which probably thy 
religion or philosophy, or both, may say ought not to 
have disquieted it, — but which combining as it did 
the ideas of mismanagement, waste, and disappointed 
gain, could not fail to operate sensibly on a tempera- 
ment like mine, — I was quickly made sensible that 
it would not do to make too much of it, even in so- 
liloquy, and that something must be attempted to 
silence these inward repinings. In this labor, more 
severe than reaping, I thought myself helped by re- 
membering the seaman's lot, whose life and whose 
property so often perish in the wave ; and I was 
still further assisted by recollecting the manner in 
which 

1 The son of patience heard the wreck 
Of all his fortunes, camels, oxen, flocks, 
Sons, daughters, — all in one sad hour o'erwhelmed." 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 21 



tc ' 



: 1824 — 1st mo. 19. My youngest son, my two 
daughters, and myself, who now form my family, are 
at present in the enjoyment of usual health. We 
reside in the same house where I was born, which, 
by a little retouching, we have endeavored to make a 
kind of comfortable cottage, and I believe I may say 
we have succeeded to our general content. This is 
pleasant, as the taste of young and elderly folks often 
differs so much. By means of a pretty large bow- 
window, which, being the half of a hexagon, admits 
views to E. N. E. and S. E., we have obtained a suffi- 
ciently light and commodious sitting-room, which is 
important to me for reading and taking exercise 
when I cannot conveniently take it abroad. We pass 
our long evenings partly with books. P. reads, his 
sisters work, and criticise the recent schoolboy, while 
I sit in my arm-chair as grand umpire, or referee in 
doubtful or difficult cases. 

" 1826 — 11th mo. 20. In mentioning Gedney, I 
observe thou hast associated greenness with the re- 
collection. This, trifling as it may seem, pleases me, 
not only because I love Gedney, but because it shows 
thee to be in possession of a secret which some tra- 
vellers want, that of trying to be pleased wherever 
they are ; and if there be c a spot of azure in a 
clouded sky/ endeavoring to find it. Thus in the 
fens of Lincolnshire, instead of looking for rocks and 
mountains and forests, thou more wisely kept thy 
eyes down, and thereby discovered the only beauty 
we can boast, the verdure of our pastures — a verdure 
which, from interest and fancy combined, I have so 



22 MEMOIR OF 

often hailed with delight; and even now, when de- 
light in such objects seems fast wearing away, I still 
behold with pleasing sensation. Perhaps I seldom 
have been more soberly or sweetly gratified in this 
way than during the present autumn, in which the 
renovated state of the vegetable kingdom has been 
indeed surprising. In the extraordinary drought of 
summer, the poor sheep had nibbled the grass very 
short, and in the most even manner — a work which 
they execute better than the scythe ; so that when 
genial weather set in, we had very quickly our de- 
sert-like appearance changed to that of a second 
spring; and I think the tenth month, flowers ex- 
cepted, outvied the fourth in beauty. 

" 1831 — 5th mo. I should like to walk with thee 
over some of our best grazing-land, a small propor- 
tion of the whole, which is just now in its brightest 
appearance; the grass is so thick, so small in its 
blade, so verdant in its color, so short and so soft to 
the foot, that altogether it might almost require a 
poet fully to describe it. However, in my sober lan- 
guage, it happens to be beauty which I have eyes to 
see, and viewing it as I do, I am reconciled to my 
lowly allotment, although I am aware that wit has 
at one time called it a 'land of frogs/ and at another 
' the paradise of graziers and gosherds/ 

"And thus, my friend, we are almost brought to 
the conclusion, that it does not much signify where 
a man's home is, if he is but contented ; and whilst 
we allow the mountaineer to be delighted with the 
hill that lifts him to the storm, we may by the same 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. Zo 

rule suffer the inhabitants of a lower region to re- 
joice in the plain that feeds, and to commend the 
bog that bears him." 

To another friend he writes : u Cannot you peep 
at us, by the way, towards Lancashire? Gedney, 
like other grazing districts, often appears rather 
dreary to strangers in the winter, but is now about 
in its prime. A scene, thou knowest, may be lovely, 
though the heart of him that views it be faint ; still, 
the note of the blackbird, and the fragrance of the 
woodbine, may help to keep him from fainting. In 
the two latter charms of nature I think we just now 
excel." 



CHAPTER III. 

In order to present more fully the character of 
Jonathan Hutchinson from his correspondence, we 
shall proceed to make extracts on various subjects 
illustrative of his views on mental, moral, and reli- 
gious culture, inserting them without regard to date 
or address. 

" To , 

" Whether I see thee ascending the bare hill, 
taking thy stand upon the still more exposed cliff to 
contemplate the wonders of the sea and sky, or re- 
turning through groves of thy own planting to thy 
cottage home, my visionary prospect is generally as- 
sociated with a portion of verse which I copied more 



24 MEMOIR OF 

than forty years ago, and which, agreeing as I have 
found it does with experience, pleases and instructs 
me to the present day. Should these lines, as I think 
they may, excite corresponding feelings in thy mind, 
I perhaps shall do something more than blot my 
paper by transcribing them for thy perusal. After 
beautifully describing various objects of sight and 
sound, which formed the immediate scene of his 
musings, the author says : — 

" ' Much on the imperfect state of man I have mused: 
Plow pain o'er half his hours her iron reign 
Ruthless extends. How pleasure from the path 
Of innocence allures his steps. How hope 
Fixes his eye on future joy that flies 
His fond pursuit. How fear his shuddering heart 
Alarms with fancied ill. How doubt and care 
Perplex his thought. How soon the tender rose 
Of beauty fades ; the sturdy oak of strength 
Declines to earth, and over all our pride 
Stern Time triumphant stands.' 

John Scott. 

1 1 do not know that we set an equal value on this 
sort of composition, of which, when I find it, as I 
now and then do, at least according to my own views, 
needlessly disparaged, I venture to avow myself the 
feeble advocate. I have heard of a grave authority 
on the other side of the water, who perhaps uniting 
a little of the zeal of an ancient puritan with the 
taste of a modern backwoodsman, would dispose of 
poetry at once by driving it out of existence. Now 
admitting the abuse of poetry in common with every 
other good thing, and excepting the most solemn 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 25 

parts of Scripture, I have never read anything better 
in prose than in verse, or worse in the last than the 
first ; I therefore conclude that they have their ap- 
propriate situations and respective advantages, in the 
important business of forming character and regu- 
lating manners. Whilst thus speculating, I am 
strongly impressed with the following sentiments of 
our friend Dr. Hancock : 'As well might we suppose 
a self-moving orb to pass unhurt with a steady course 
through blazing comets crossing each other's path in 
endless physical disorder, as that a human being in 
the present scene of moral darkness and perplexity 
could direct his own steps aright by the natural 
powers of his mind, or apply himself effectually in 
such a state of infinite confusion to the duties for 
which he was designed, without providential guid- 
ance. How consistent then with true philosophy is 
the saying, that i a good man's steps are ordered of 
the Lord ! How consistent with Christianity and the 
general harmony of the universe V 

" We are told that poetry enervates the mind, by 
which I understand, reduces its natural pride, fierce- 
ness, stupidity and selfishness, to a lower standard ; 
and does not this same human nature want ameliora- 
tion ? I think it does, seeing that men naturally are 
so much more disposed to treat their fellows with 
haughtiness, cruelty, and dissimulation, than with 
the meekness, gentleness, and integrity recommended 
in the Gospel. I would, therefore, that the lion were 
tamed, the bear softened, the ass stimulated, and the 
fox taught to be less crafty and more honest ; and I 
3 



26 MEMOIR OF 

am not convinced by all I have yet heard that my 
favorite may not be useful as a means, for all is un- 
der grace, in thus changing rude and savage nature 
into civilized man. 

" Here I would hint at a distinction which appears 
to me to exist between music and poetry • that the 
first seems to be confined to the senses and passions, 
whilst the latter addresses the understanding too ; 
the first leaves nothing substantial behind it; the 
latter, if it be well chosen, much. To give an illus- 
tration, if a man can take up our late dear Priscilla 
G-urney's selection of hymns without some improve- 
ment, both of his head and his heart, I should sus- 
pect him to be equally deficient in taste, in judgment, 
and in piety." 

On the subject of music, he writes to the same 
friend at a subsequent time : "I think singing, how- 
ever, as a religious practice, (if this made part of 
thy inquiry,) should be sparingly used, and that it 
should be under an influence not at our command ; 
and therefore, perhaps, can seldom, if ever, be safely 
adopted by the whole of a mixed congregation, com- 
posed of every variety of spiritual condition ; whilst 
making melody in our hearts to the Lord, when we 
feel it arise, or the sacred song by night or by day, 
when such is given us, may, I apprehend, be ad- 
dressed with the spirit and the understanding, and 
the voice also, to Him who qualifies for the service. 
Of merely instrumental music I certainly have a 
very unfavorable opinion ; much precious time and 
property, I think, are wasted upon it in modern edu- 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 27 

cation \ whilst, as an attendant on worship, my objec- 
tion to it is quite of a serious kind, as it seems to me 
to resemble so much those dreams of eating, from 
whence, when one awakes, his soul has appetite • and 
to have nothing in it of that process which, though 
it originates in tribulation, leads its submissive votary 
to a hope that maketh not ashamed." 

"To , 



" As to thy question how far mental or even per- 
sonal cultivation may minister to pride or humility, 
the ground may not be quite clear ) and yet if we 
can admit, as I think I can, that when the mind is 
healthy and well-regulated, the person will mostly be 
sufficiently attended to, as an effect from its cause, 
perhaps we may safely conclude the most improved 
state of all our faculties to be, favorable as hand- 
maids, but as handmaids only, to religion and virtue. 
And that in this capacity of subjection to the Chris- 
tian cross they are also the ornament and the inno- 
cent delight of civil society, enabling their favored 
possessor to strew more flowers and scatter greater 
benefits amongst his fellow-travellers in their journey 
through the intricate and sometimes discouraging 
paths of time. 

" But here, consistently with our acknowledged 
love of order, let us preserve the needful and obvious 
distinction between what really improves and that 
which only adorns, or between wise and judicious in- 
struction and mere worldly accomplishment ; as under 
the latter designation I am inclined to believe, amongst 



28 MEMOIR OF 

the other hurtful things, may be recognized the deep- 
est humiliation of the understanding and the greatest 
corruption of the heart. 

" It has long been a decided sentiment with me, 
that all the advantages a man possesses, whether na- 
tural or acquired, enable him to be either a better or 
a worse man, according as he lends himself to the 
service of the best or the worst of masters ; that is 
to say, he will be either better or worse than other 
men, in proportion to the means he possesses of be- 
ing so, and as his will is inclined in the application 
of them. Thus the very same means which by the 
renewed mind are made powerful auxiliaries in the 
service of religion, are by the lawless and disobedient 
turDed into equally powerful aids in the planning 
and execution of every kind of wickedness. Hence 
the scholar under the influence of divine grace will 
generally be found to possess some advantages in the 
present life over the more simple and unlettered 
Christian ; whilst, on the other hand, a learned so- 
phist is the most dangerous of all sophists, and a 
wealthy and powerful the most distinguished of all 
tyrants, as a knowing and strong will always excel 
the weak and less practised robber. 

" I am aware that such cases as thou hast adduced 

of our dear and dignified friend , appear to form 

particular exceptions to that part of my theory which 
respects good men ; yet I think they do not amount 
to a general objection, for even he might have written 
a letter with less pain to himself, and perhaps with 
better purpose to his friends, had he been more 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. • 29 

liberally educated ; whilst it must be acknowledged 
that the manner in which this deficiency was sup- 
plied, both in meetings and in the social circle, was 
an astonishing instance of the effect of Divine influ- 
ence upon a comparatively untutored mind. And 
what does this prove ? That the natural and legiti- 
mate object and purpose of this influence is at once 
to rectify and refine the understanding, to purify and 
new-create the heart; and thus operating, to make 
both the mind and the person not only less repulsive, 
but very agreeable. How sweet may we now and 
then observe the cast of that index, the countenance, 
to be even in individuals laboring under every disad- 
vantage, but that of impiety. I have beheld this 
high order of beauty in the deformed, the aged, and 
the poor. 

" Against the pride that i would be angel ' it is 
doubtless proper to guard, but this appears to consist 
in a curious, aspiring, and too inquisitive disposition ; 
a philosophy falsely so called, that would be wise 
above that which is either written or revealed, which 
is more allied to folly than to wisdom, and just the 
reverse of cultivation and improvement. I do not 
think this need be any bar to the education of dear 
children according to the best understanding and 
abilities of their parents, and with some view per- 
haps to the sphere of life in which they may have 
to move. 

" After all, the longer I live the more I am per- 
suaded by observation and experience, that in all our 
concerns, and especially that of bringing up our 



30 ' MEMOIR OF 

families, unless the Lord build the house, they labor 
in vain that build it; and unless He keep the city, 
the watchman waketh but in vain. The most anxious 
and assiduous parents can never make their offspring 
what they would have them to be, without a blessing 
upon their endeavors, and the co-operation of the 
children with both. Parents or guardians, therefore, 
seem to me to make but one of three parties; but 
they are a party, and their office is important, espe- 
cially in its earliest exercise. Let them then not 
neglect it, as in this case, whatever else may be the 
issue, they may expect peace in the retrospect of 
having endeavored to do their duty • yea, they may 
derive encouragement from the hope that their coun- 
sels, like bread cast on the waters, may be found 
after many days ; and that their prayers, their labor, 
and travail may be answered, even after they them- 
selves are numbered with the silent dead. 

(i Whilst I contemplate mental cultivation as hold- 
ing a distinguished and essential part in raising our 
species from a savage to a civilized condition, I con- 
sider religion, the Christian religion, as that which, 
after education has done its best, can furnish, and 
only can furnish, the perfect model of accomplished 
man ; and this it effects by producing in the willing 
and obedient mind what the apostle Paul has appro- 
priately called the fruits of the Spirit ; whilst on the 
reverse of the medal he has given us, as the fruits 
of the flesh, all that is affecting and deplorable in 
the picture of unchanged, and may we not add of 
unrefined nature, groaning under its terrible and 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 31 

unrelenting task - master — the Pharaoh of the 
soul." 

" To , 

"Among those meditations on creation and its 
Author, which often lead me to wonder, and some- 
times I hope to adore, a frequent and favorite one is 
on that kind of simple power, or power in the ab- 
stract, which is not only dispensed to man, the deputy 
lord of nature, but to every creature wherein is the 
breath of animal life, over that small portion of mat- 
ter to which the faculty of a will is attached. So 
that by volition only this portion of matter is to a 
certain extent under the absolute control of free and 
voluntary determinations. Nor is the limitation of 
this extraordinary power less remarkable than its ex- 
tension, being defined by a boundary as complete and 
arbitrary as that of the ocean, to whose proud and 
restless waves it has been said, i Thus far shall ye 
go, and no farther/ So whilst myself, my dog, or 
my horse, by a mode or agency as incomprehensible 
as it is evident, can with the greatest facility move 
the whole or any part of our own bodies, we have no 
such power by simple volition over the smallest part 
of another animal, whether of our own or any other 
species. We could not in this way, light as it is, stir 
the wing of a fly. 

" Now for the tale, were it not for a further degree 
of the limitation just adverted to over that material 
clog to which my own intellectual part is fettered, or 
had I the wings of a dove with skill to use them, I 



32 MEMOIR OF 

think I should not just now fly into the wilderness, 
but to Earlham, and might probably soon be placed 
by thy fireside instead of my own. As this style of 
writing cannot be taken for the notes of sorrow, so it 
may perhaps be as little suspected of any alliance 
with sympathy ; and yet if I am not deceived, sym- 
pathy, sweet and sacred, and ofttimes suffering sym- 
pathy, is the remote cause of my present attraction 

towards thee and thine 

" Having always thought the subject rather intri- 
cate, I have been afraid of entering into discussion 
on the religious instruction of youth, lest I should 
embarrass rather than illustrate it. It seems to me 
to consist of various parts, on which, for want of view- 
ing them distinctly, it may be easy for us to misun- 
derstand each other. We have also diversities of 
gifts from the same Spirit, and different members of 
the spiritual body have not the same office, of which, 
to myself at least, my own case, is a remarkable proof; 
for whilst I entertain the most favorable opinion of 
many great and good works which are now going on 
in the world, I am so far from taking any decidedly 
active part in them, that as to any public step, by act 
or deed, further than a little money, I seem, to borrow 
a phrase, i hermetically sealed/ my spiritual solicitude 
being concentrated as it were on this one point, — the 
individual salvation of those who are members of our 
own religious Society, each of whom, notwithstand- 
ing the privilege of being born in a country denomi- 
nated Christian, I consider to be born into the world 
as much the child of fallen nature as the Icelander 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 66 

or the Hindoo, and consequently to stand in equal 
need of convincement and conversion to their own 
nominal religion with those who have never heard its 
name. And to the great proportion of such as re- 
main in an unconverted or unregenerate state, ne- 
glecting, despising, or forsaking the privileges of 
their birthright — to this it is that I think we must 
chiefly ascribe the great difference there is between 
the present state of our Society, and that first period 
of it, wherein all were convinced, and, as appears by 
its records, most of them were faithful. 

" Perhaps the exclusive anxiety which I feel to a 
much greater degree than I can express for my 
brethren and kinsfolk after the flesh, or by profes- 
sion, may partly originate in the recollection of the 
means by which, through grace, I have become what 
I am. When I was young there was much less of 
outward endeavors among Friends, at least those of 
my acquaintance, to instruct their youth, than, how- 
ever deficient we may still appear, has been the case 
in later years. And though I, and doubtless many 
others, had parents who taught them to read and re- 
verence the Scriptures, as well as occasionally to 
peruse the writings of our early Friends, here was 
about the whole of what might be called our reli- 
gious education. Yet even in this way I remember 
to have acquired such a knowledge of the sacred 
Scriptures, and of the leading principles of my own 
profession, as during the course of a lamentable apos- 
tasy never forsook, though it could not reclaim me. 
How often, when by a course of vain speculation and 
c 



34 MEMOIR OF 

dangerous experiment, I seemed to be exploring the 
depths of the fall — how often in this mad career has 
the secret application of a text arrested my progress, 
and shaken the sceptic in the scorner's chair ! How 
often too, when acting inconsistently with my princi- 
ples, have I been assured to a certainty, that these 
deviations were neither more nor less than denying 
Him before men, who, if I died in this state, would 
deny me before his Father and the holy angels ! and 
un-der a sense of the awful responsibility which I was 
thus, in violation of my knowledge, incurring, how 
often have I been ready to wish that I had never 
been born, or at any rate that I had not by birthright 
inherited so pure and holy a Christian name as that 
which I bore, and almost daily dishonored ! 

" In addition to this, it was impossible for me to 
forget how unavailing were all outward endeavors to- 
wards bringing me out of this horrible pit, and that 
neither men nor books, even his instruments, had 
anything to do in plucking me at length as a brand 
out of the fire. Remembering this, I am perhaps the 
more fearful of infringing upon the office of that 
mighty Redeemer who thus mercifully wrought for 
me with a high hand and an outstretched arm. This 
consideration may possibly make me more desirous 
that neither myself nor those whom I most tenderly 
love may attempt anything out of the line of our 
respective appointments, nor in it, but so far as we 
may be required and assisted. 

" If parents and guardians of youth were as assi- 
duous as I think the importance of the occasion de- 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 60 

mands in the work of their own salvation, a corre- 
sponding solicitude would be felt for those committed 
to their trust, and a way would at times be opened, 
when the Scriptures were read, to explain and ex- 
pound passages of them in the life of truth; and in 
a degree of the same life also, would they, as ability 
was afforded, be concerned to impress the principles 
of their peculiar profession on the minds of their 
children or pupils. 

" My son is gone into Yorkshire, so that I am left 
with only my young housekeeper Rachel. To her, on 
rainy days, evenings, and when thus engaged, I am 
a house companion. By way of reconciling this lively 
girl to retirement and herself, I am at convenient in- 
tervals reading to her Bates's Rural Philosophy. In 
this respectable performance, for such I think it, I 
happened, since laying down my pen yesterday, to 
fall upon a passage which seems so connected with 
the principal subject of my letter, and is at the same 
time in such accordance with my sentiments, that I 
am inclined to detain thee a little longer by its pe- 
rusal. i Since the original apostasy, man is become 
not only guilty, but depraved ■ and besides t\\Q pardon 
of his sins, needs the medicinal grace of Christ to 
heal the disorders of his nature, and enable him to 
exert his faculties in a due and spiritual manner, and 
thus to restore him to a proper use of himself. In 
the great business of education, of which we have 
been speaking, every method that can be employed 
without this divine aid to predispose and habitually 
to influence the heart of the pupil, however it might 



36 MEMOIR OP 

serve to supply him with those qualities which would 
render him amiable and useful in society, would fail 
to provide him with that virtue which must qualify 
him for heaven; and every subsequent attempt to 
acquire this qualification after he came to act for him- 
self, would, without the same divine succor, prove 
equally inefficacious/ " 

" To a young female Friend : 

" I embrace the present liberty of assuring thee 
how much interest I feel in thy spiritual welfare. 
My hopes of thee are that thou mayest be a valuable 
pattern to several precious young plants of thy own 
sex under our name, who are rising up within the 
immediate sphere of thy acquaintance. Youth want 
monitors, but above all they want practical teachers 
among themselves. They are too prone to think that 
it is time enough yet to become religious, or that if 
this be necessary, yet both the maxims and manners 
of their seniors are too austere. But when they see 
here one and there another of their equals in years, 
and especially if these are in possession of every 
means of self-indulgence, with understandings and 
education no way inferior to their own ) when such 
are beheld stepping forward somewhat like those who 
in the early ages of Christianity turned out of the 
Roman legions, boldly declaring themselves its con- 
verts, though death looked them in the face — such a 
sight would be likely to arrest the attention even of 
the thoughtless, with this consideration — surely it 
must be for a reality that such sacrifices are made ; it 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. St 

cannot be a chimera for which these trials are en- 
dured. I believe few outward helps would be of so 
great advantage to young Friends of the present day 
as that of witnessing among their contemporaries an 
increase of decided characters — of those who, dying 
to their own wills, and with a holy courage which 
eclipses that of outward warfare, taking up their daily 
cross, avow by the language of conduct, that they 
are weary of the folly of inconsistency with their 
own profession, that they are still more weary of the 
anguish of a divided heart; and that, therefore, 
through Divine help, they are resolved to quit the 
service of him who is an enemy to peace, and take 
that yoke upon them which, notwithstanding the 
mistakes about it, is light and easy, when compared 
with the distractions and distresses of disobedience 
and a wounded conscience." 



'To 



"There is one thing which occasioned me some 
exercise in London, and has attended me since I 
came home — a j ealousy or fear, lest amid the shak- 
ings to which thou hast alluded, and which do indeed 
threaten to disturb everything that can be shaken — 
I have been, and am anxious, lest, at such a time, 
any of my dear kindred or friends should be moved 
from the one only true foundation, the Rock of ages, 
Jesus Christ the righteous, and Him crucified. ! 
that none of us may be either driven or allured from 
the foot of his cross ! 

" To prevent, in times like the present, this great- 
4 



38 MEMOIR OF 

est of all calamities happening to us, must, I appre- 
hend, require on our part close watchfulness unto 
prayer • as it is quite to be believed that our unwea- 
ried spiritual adversary will not omit so favorable an 
opportunity for practising upon us ; it may be, both 
as a lion, a serpent, an angel of light, a reformer, or 
a philosopher. We shall have need, therefore, of a 
wisdom superior to his, or to our own, to discover 
him under any of his transformations, and of a power 
above all the power of the enemy, even the whole 
armor of light, to resist him when discovered. 

" It is, I think, one of the weaknesses of human 
nature, and one I also believe of which our enemy 
often seeks to avail himself, when we are honestly 
endeavoring to avoid one extreme, to hurry us into 
another; overstepping truth and rectitude, which 
will generally be found to lie between them ; thus, in 
departing from what now appears to be the striking 
singularity of a costume, which two centuries ago I 
suppose had nothing uncommon about it, but which, 
by the youth of our Society of latter time, seems to 
have been considered as a cross unnecessarily severe, 
or somewhat like a yoke too grievous to be borne; 
whilst I admit that form may be overrated, and can 
of itself avail us little, I do believe that the true 
Christian will always be distinguished by his modera- 
tion, his humility, and even his singularity. If in 
this evil day, we sustain the character described in 
the first verse of the Psalms, we shall find it as true 
an axiom that, to be right, we must often be singular ; 
so that, in relaxing, as we appear in some instances 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 39 

to be doing, from what perhaps may be considered 
trie rigors of our ancient practice, I do very earnestly 
desire we may stop at trie right point, at that com- 
mon, and if we may so say, that simple simplicity in 
dress, language, and furniture, which may be read 
and understood of all men in all times \ preserving 
those who, through faith and obedience, are con- 
cerned to walk therein, out of the fearful, costly, and 
troublesome whirlpool of fashion, the vain customs, 
maxims, and sinful delight of a fallen and degenerate 
world, lying in wickedness. 

" Thou wilt think, perhaps, I am expressing my- 
self rather earnestly ; but it is indeed my conviction, 
that from despising the day of small things, many 
have fallen by little and little ; and that, if ever these 
rise again to usefulness in our Society, it must be by 
a close attention to what they are too apt to consider 
minor particulars, which in my view of them are 
only portions of a chain, from which, whether we 
apply the figure to a law of nature or grace, what- 
ever link we strike, disorganizes the whole. 

" In making a few general remarks on the writings 
of our early predecessors, I would that we always 
approached them with caution and tenderness, tread- 
ing lightly on the ashes or remains of the honorable 
dead. With the controversies of these ancient wor- 
thies, or their manner of conducting them according 
to the spirit of their age, we have now, I apprehend, 
little or nothing to do. Neither are we called upon 
to imitate or defend the sometimes obscure and mys- 
terious, or, compared with that of the present day, 



40 MEMOIR OF 

almost absolute tautology of their style. One thing it 
may be well for us to remember, that, from these 
voluminous works, abounding, as they confessedly 
do, with great redundancy of expression, may be ex- 
tracted an essence of as pure and sublime truth — if 
we except the Holy Scriptures, and their authors — 
as perhaps ever fell from the lips, or flowed from the 
pen of man : so that, on the whole, I am inclined to 
believe the best apology for the writings in question, 
if indeed they need one, would be an attentive and 
unprejudiced perusal of them, when they would be 
found to be their best, and perhaps altogether suffi- 
cient expositors." 



CHAPTER IV. 



In the close afflictions Jonathan Hutchinson fre- 
quently met with, by the loss of wife, children, and 
other beloved relatives, we find the faith of a Chris- 
tian believer supporting him, and enabling him to 
praise the Lord. His beloved wife was, as we have 
seen, early removed from his side, and about three 
years after his eldest daughter was taken. To this 
event he alludes in the following extract : 

" I am free to say, that if a capacity to feel for 
others be any quality of mine, I have received it not 
so much by words as by things, and this in the house 
of mourning — my heart, naturally obdurate and un- 
believing, having been brought to its present state 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 41 

of faith and love, whatever this may be, by repeated 
baptisms in the troubled yet healing waters of afflic- 
tion. From one of these I am scarcely now emerging, 
having but within a few clays returned home from 
watching the progress of a disorder which conducted 
my eldest daughter, about fifteen, to the silent grave. 
Though I tenderly loved her, yet I am probably more 
affected by a sense of loss, from the disappointed 
hope which this- loss has occasioned J having indulged 
the fond hope that this dear girl, who had finished 
her education, and under the care of valuable rela- 
tions was receiving domestic instruction, might in a 
few years have succeeded her late mother as the 
female head of my family, the pleasant companion 
of her elder brother, the instructress of my younger 
children, and (where alas ! does not hope lead us !) 
the solace of my declining days, for all which she 
held out very promising expectations. So that thou 
wilt not, I think, be surprised to hear me say that 
nature feels much on this occasion ; but blessed be 
the Lord, who does not forsake, but enables me to 
bend under it, both by affording me the very con- 
soling belief that the dear departed child is entered 
into rest, and by superadding the tender sympathy 
of several dear and affectionate friends, and — may I 
add — by tendering my spirit before Him. 

" Former experience has convinced me that, though 
we may have to travel our- dreary ground, we must 
not think of taking up a rest here ; indeed that no 
rest can be found upon it, but more probably a total 

discomfiture and overthrow both of faith and prac- 
4. * 



42 MEMOIR OF 

tice ; and I am not even yet willing to die a death so 
inglorious; for the Christian warfare, erroneous as 
the general notion is concerning it, appears to me 
both noble and dignified. Thus thinking, I have 
fled from despondency to resources ; and whilst I 
seize with eager gratitude the proffered hand of 
friendship, I search the Scriptures, and endeavor to 
bow my soul before Him, who is not only described 
therein as c walking in darkness/ but as the succor 
of the afflicted. I trust these endeavors have not 
been entirely fruitless; as I find myself enabled to 
lift up my head in hope that all may still work toge- 
ther for my good, to which I am further encouraged 
by the apprehension that some important truths have 
been, in the course of the present dispensation, more 
deeply than ever impressed upon my mind." 

In a letter addressed to some valued Friends, on 
the occasion of a similar bereavement in their family 
several years afterwards, he again instructively refers 
to the death of his daughter. • " I can scarcely for- 
bear mentioning that dear H/s expressions of thanks- 
giving on the death of your child, has reminded me 
forcibly of the apostolic exhortation, 'Rejoice ever- 
more, and in everything give thanks.' It has re- 
minded me also of my own experience under a similar 
trial, when after watching for several days the illness 
of my oldest daughter, who, nearly fourteen years 
ago, died at Selby of water in the head, the disorder 
at length reached a crisis, wherein it was thought 
best for me to leave the sick-room; I did so, but 
could not be easy without returning. This procured 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 43 

for me an intelligent and seraphic smile, for she was 
speechless, observed only by myself; but which I 
would not have missed for any consideration in my 
power. I then again and finally left her; and in a 
few minutes afterwards, being informed that she had 
ceased to breathe, was suddenly enabled alone, and 
amidst a flood of nature's tears, to utter this short 
ejaculation, ' I thank thee, Father/ 

" I cannot tell what those who consider reason as 
the only guide and chief good of man would make 
of such conduct as this. I think it was not the effect 
of leaning to my own understanding, and certainly 
not to my own inclination ; for I would willingly have 
kept my child, upon whom, after the decease of her 
mother, I had placed much expectation and hope, 
which she seemed likely to realize. To what then 
must we ascribe this ? Perhaps to the influence of 
that Spirit which helpeth our infirmities ; and which, 
surmounting nature, teaches us not only to pray, but 
to praise and return thanks aright. What, indeed, 
short of this gentle and powerful agency, can bring 
such poor creatures as we to adopt in sincerity and 
truth this pious sentiment of Young ? e For all we 
bless thee, most for the severe/ " 

When far advanced in life, another beloved daugh- 
ter was taken, one who had been happily married. 
In writing to a beloved friend on this occasion, he 
says, " On approaching the bed of my dear Lydia, I 
found that her disorder had made such progress as 
to disqualify her for converse ; so that although sen- 
sible and apparently pleased to see me, she could only 



44 MEMOIR OF 

reply to my query if her mind was peaceful, by a 
whisper in the affirmative ; and in about three hours 
she expired. 

" How true it is, that our fairest theories, or even 
our former experience, avail us little in the extremity 
of sorrow, which, like a tempest or a torrent, carries 
them before it. Affliction was no new thino- to me. 
I had lost parents, wife, children, and many friends 
of different ages; yet the present visitation found 
me encompassed by human infirmity • it came over 
me somewhat like the strength of a giant upon the 
weakness of a child; and had not those fountains 
been opened, which seem to have been mercifully 
designed for the relief of a laboring breast, perhaps, 
old and feeble as I am, I might scarcely have been 
able to sustain the load. 

"As it is, however, I am as well as it is at all rea- 
sonable to expect, and probably as is good for me ; 
though I always expect to feel a void, in addition to 
many former ones, which nothing earthly can fill. 
But, amidst all our tribulation, some of us are enabled 
to rejoice in the precious hope that another prepared 
spirit is, through the merits of its Redeemer and the 
mercy of God, entered into everlasting rest. 

" The last portion of Scripture which Lydia heard, 
I think on the day previous to her departure, was 
the two last chapters of Revelations, which, as they 
are very beautiful, so I have also thought, might not 
be inappropriate to such a scene in such an hour. 

"A certain learned and pious writer has been very 
severe upon those who die of what he designates a 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 40 

broken heart, charging them with pride and self-will, 
if not with madness. But so did not He who took 
upon him our nature, became a man of sorrows, and 
wept for his friend. Estimable as I hold those sub- 
lime and amiable virtues, patience and resignation, I 
would rather weep incessantly over the graves of 
such as honest grief, ' which comes at God's com- 
mand/ had accelerated thither, than load their me- 
mory with reproach. I do not mean by this an 
apology for giving way to immoderate sorrow ) on the 
contrary, I believe we ought to do all we can to sup- 
press it, and even to pray for due submission. And 
it may afford thee, perhaps, some satisfaction to know, 
that at the present juncture I am able, though with 
tender emotion, to kiss the rod, and bless the hand 
that appointed it." 

To another Friend he says, " Of our dear children, 
both of those departed and such as are yet spared to 
us, I frequently think ; and since my late bereave- 
ment of one very tenderly beloved, I have been struck 
with the different sensations which the remembrance 
of the two classes excite in my mind. For those who 
have died in the hope of mercy and forgiveness 
through a blessed Mediator, I feel a congratulation, 
comparable to joy unspeakable, on account of their 
being now set free from the dangers of temptation, 
the recurrence of sorrows, or the frequent visits of 
bodily and mental pain, to which humanity is liable, 
whilst for those who, with myself, yet remain in a 
state of conflict and probation, whatever may be their 
condition or their prospects, there is not the same 



46 MEMOIR OF 

assurance of safety, the same completeness of satis- 
faction ; they are as on a sea of glass, and if I ven- 
ture to rejoice over them at all, it is with mingled 
emotion." 

His presence in the chamber of sickness and death 
appears to have been peculiarly acceptable, his heart 
being full of Christian love and sympathy for the 
afflicted ; and we find that a beloved niece, suffering 
with slow consumptive disease, desired his frequent 
visits. Her closing scene is thus recorded : " Her 
conflicts ended last Fourth-day morning. The scene 
for some days had been a deeply affecting one to me, 
but was more than compensated by the confirmation 
of faith and increase of experience which, in com- 
mon with my surrounding friends, I hope we all 
derived from it. It is probable the oldest of us might 
never before have had so full and fair an opportunity 
of witnessing the power of religion on the mind in 
affliction, in sickness, and in death ; or one wherein, 
young as the subject was, grace was so eminently 
triumphant, not only over the weakness, but amidst 
the agonies, of slowly expiring nature. 

" One evening, as her father and I were standing 
by her couch, from a state of comparative ease she 
became suddenly sensible of an approaching struggle. 
Leaning against her parent, and taking my hand, she 
exclaimed, i my dear uncle ! my dear father ! I 
am going/ She was perfectly collected and sensible 
throughout the paroxysm, and at short intervals, but 
in a raised and audible voice, she continued thus to 
express herself: ' This is death!' 'I had no idea 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 47 

that dying was like this — but I can bear it/ ( Thou 
(meaning the Almighty) enablest me to bear it/ 
f Lord ! into thy hands I commend my spirit/ ' Jesus, 
receive my spirit/ ( Oh ! take me to thyself V She 
then lay for some time as if departing, but whilst we 
were expecting to see her breathe her last, she gra- 
dually revived, after which she observed to her mo- 
ther, 1 1 thought I was going ; I was disappointed ; 
but I desire to wait the Almighty's time/ " She sur- 
vived several days after this, and uttered many com- 
fortable expressions, so that, as Jonathan Hutchinson 
remarks, the account had " more of brightness than 
of gloom in it." 

" For," he proceeds, " how instructive and edify- 
ing, as we have often heard and seen, and I think 
have remarked to each other, the closing moments 
of some dear young persons are found to be — even 
where the appearance of piety has lain much con- 
cealed from outward observation, it has nevertheless 
been elicited in an extraordinary degree on the ap- 
proach of death. Then a faith not built on systems, 
but on the Rock of Ages, has shone forth with efful- 
gence and power ; then a hope not deduced from the 
subtleties of the schools has, to the humbling admi- 
ration of beholders, discovered itself, as an anchor 
to the departing soul, sure and steadfast; and the 
whole of the case has manifested, too clearly to be 
mistaken, that not more by their expressions, though 
' these are sometimes remarkable, than by the strength 
of mind with which they were enabled to pass through 
the dark valley, by these babes and sucklings, praise 



48 MEMOIR OP ■ 

of the purest and most exalted kind lias been per- 
fected, and ascribed to that very adorable Name who 
has thus given them the victory over their last enemy. 
Let us, therefore, my valued friends, as we may be 
enabled, unite in the sacred anthems which the dying 
example of these young believers seems so eminently 
calculated to inspire." 

The following extract from another letter is appro- 
priate on this occasion : 

" How much sweeter than roses or their incense, 
I have thought, is the piety evinced by some of our 
beloved young friends, who are called upon in the 
morning of their day to prove their allegiance by 
their acquiescence in the will of their Creator and 
their Redeemer. For early or late, living or dying, 
resignation appears to me the only altar on which an 
acceptable sacrifice of any kind can be offered ; and 
submissively to place upon this altar the opening 
prospects of early life, and even life itself, seems 
to be one of the deepest and most precious expe- 
riences of a Christian. How lovely, then, is it, to 
behold the well-disciplined and well-regulated minds 
of some who are but lately passed even from infancy, 
and to perceive, as I think we may sometimes plainly 
do, that the principle to which they have been di- 
rected supports them under nature's severest con- 
flicts, and even in the trying hour of dissolution." 



JONATHAN II U T C II I N S N . 49 



CHAPTER V. 

" How precious is that unity of spirit which con- 
stitutes Christian fellowship." With this expression 
Jonathan Hutchinson addresses on one occasion a 
beloved friend, and then proceeds to say, — " For 
some hours this morning, I have been introduced 
into such a new communion with you in the love, 
and fear, and mercy of our God, as equally excites 
my wonder and my praise 5 and it seems as if it 
would be an act of manifold injustice to withhold 
the knowledge of it from you. In this situation, so 
different from what we probably each of us often 
pass through, I have thought myself the most fa- 
vored of men. And why ? Because the most un- 
worthy ! — at least more so than any of my fellow- 
mortals of whose state I have any knowledge or con- 
ception ; and this view of ourselves is sufficient for 
the purposes of individual humiliation and gratitude. 
Here we may perceive what a privilege it is, that, 
without confusion or interference, thousands may be 
under all these circumstances at the same moment 
of time, enjoying the same bounty of their Creator, 
exercising the same self-abasedness before Him, and 
offering the same incense of adoration and praise ; or 
will it be a needless addition by one comprehensive 
expression to say, trembling and rejoicing in the 
beams of the Sun of righteousness ? Well, in the 
5 d 



50 MEMOIR OF 

bonds of this love, in the feeling of this creaturely 
reduction, and at the foot of this altar, I again bid 
you affectionately farewell." 

To one who had been tried with many and varied 
afflictions he thus writes: — " Indeed this path of 
many tribulations is so far from being a new one, 
that it seems on the contrary to be the high road by 
which, since the fall of Adam, the spiritual traveller 
has been conducted to happiness and to glory. Ac- 
cordingly, we cannot read far in the Scriptures with- 
out having our attention turned towards it, with 
suitable instructions how to conduct ourselves, and 
journey forward therein. Of these directions, the 
leading one seems to be, a resigning all that we have 
and all that we are — our own lives not excepted — 
into the hand of Him who gave us them all. It ap- 
pears, even at this time of day, little short of mar- 
vellous to me when I consider, or rather when I feel, 
how many baptisms are necessary, not only to bring 
many of us to this point of entire surrender, but to 
keep us there, so that in the simplicity of little chil- 
dren, and in foolishness to our own wisdom, we may 
be willing to follow the Lamb whithersoever he 
leadeth, into doing, suffering, or rejoicing. And 
however difficult or impossible this attainment may 
be, by the exertion of merely human powers, yet as 
we set it up for our mark, keep it constantly in view, 
pray for it, and press after it, I trust we shall receive 
adequate assistance in every needful time, and that 
ultimately we shall be made more than conquerors 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 51 

through Him that hath loved us — for the Lamb and 
his followers shall have the victory. 

"If it may tend more unequivocally to show that 
to impart strength and comfort, without any mixture 
of alloy, is the only motive for my thus greeting thee, 
suffer me to turn thy attention to the following texts, 
by which I have sometimes been consoled and re- 
freshed. l Though I walk in the midst of trouble, 
Thou wilt revive me.' 'In the multitude of my 
thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul/ 
Why art thou cast down, my soul ! and why art 
thou disquieted within me ? Hope in God, for I 
shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my coun- 
tenance and my God." 

The deep interest Jonathan Hutchinson felt in the 
welfare of the religious Society of which he was a 
member, led him frequently to introduce the subject 
in his correspondence. The following passages are 
selected from his letters : 

" I find a spring of comfort and congratulation 
arise in my heart towards those who, of latter years, 
have attached themselves more closely and decidedly 
to the principles and practices of Friends, and in 

this view and have a place in that secret 

and sacred recess of my heart from which I think 
everything gross and selfish is the most excluded. 
Here it is that I love them, not so much for my own 
sake or for theirs exclusively, as for the Lord's sake, 
and for the sake of his blessed truth, and especially 
for the sake of that little church, which (however 
despised, overlooked, or misunderstood) is to those 



52 MEMOIR or 

who have been rightly initiated within its walls, and 
who abide on its immovable foundations, a quiet re- 
fuge and a peaceful sanctuaiy. For thus, without 
invidious comparison, I must be allowed to believe 
of it, and thus perhaps I may be allowed to persuade 
others to believe, in this inviting language, nearly 
that of an apostle, l Come and have fellowship with 
us, for truly our fellowship is with the Father and 
with his Son Jesus Christ :' but not exclusively your 
privilege, some might object: I do not say this, but 
I am bold to avow, in the face of the whole world, 
that under the fastidious nickname by which we are 
designated (alluding to the term Quaker) after some 
examination and much reluctance to bearing its 
crosses, there still appears to me to be comprised 
and concealed, even under this very reproach, the 
most simple, unsophisticated, and essential form of 
Christian profession. 

" Whilst no man perhaps thinks less than I do of 
i the boast of heraldry and pomp of power/ whilst 
no man believes more fully than I do that the uni- 
versal Parent made of one blood all the families of 
the earth, and therefore in his sight the soul of the 
master and the soul of the servant are alike inesti- 
mably precious ; yet this persuasion does not in the 
least interfere with my further belief that it has 
pleased the same Almighty Creator and Governor of 
the world to appoint various classes and conditions 
of men in society, both civil and religious, and thai; 
it is also his will that not only these different classes, 
but each individual in every class, should contribute 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 53 

to the good of the whole according to the talents be- 
stowed upon him and his opportunities for exercising 
them. 

" How much since we parted I have been com- 
forted and strengthened by recurring to the passage 
which came so much before thee in our precious 
evening meeting at Lynn : i My soul, wait thou only 
upon God, for my expectation is from Him/ So true 
it is that our minds want stirring up by way of re- 
membrance, even of things whereof it might be 
supposed that we not only knew them before, but 
were fully established in theni." 

"To , 



"We are said to be c creatures of habit/ perhaps 
it is partly owing to this, having been used to little 
else, that I feel so much interest for the support and 
revival of small meetings. I forbear to particularize, 
because we have only to look around us, and these 
instances, like the shades of brighter days, will start 
up in multitudinous vision ; not however visionary, 
but real remnants of once different things. They 
must entirely fall, unless the rising generation so lay 
it to heart, as like the Ezras and Nehemiahs of old, 
to arise and build not only their own houses, but the 
breaches in the walls and palaces of spiritual Jerusa- 
lem. Do not think me desponding. I know the 
worth of many individuals in very solitary situations. 
I have also a high opinion of the capacities and re- 
sources of my younger brethren and sisters ; but I 
must confess that I long to see, before my departure 
5* 



54 MEMOIR OF 

from this scene of visible things, a more decided de- 
dication of their powers to the service of Him who 
gave them, and to the support of a Society which, 
without invidious comparison, I am bold to call, as 
to its principles, the first in the world; and were 
there a more general acting up to these principles by 
those who profess them, I am bold to say, the world, 
though now incredulous, ' should know it too/ " 

We might search far for a more beautiful exam- 
ple of sustaining a small meeting than is to be found 
in the following incident recorded by this devoted 
follower of the Lord Jesus. Surely here we may find 
the truth of the declaration, i Where two or three 
are gathered together in my name, there will I be in 
the midst of them/ 

" At our meeting on Fourth-day last, which is 
usually very small, it so happened that myself, J. R., 
and L., made up the whole of it; when a little be- 
fore the conclusion I thought it safe for me to tell 
them how much I had been desiring that they, my 
dear children by nature, might become the Lord's 
children by adoption; that so, when we should no 
longer assemble together as we then did, when I 
should sleep with my fathers, and be gathered to the 
house appointed for all living, they might be pre- 
served wherever they go, and blessed in whatsoever 
they do. On rising from my seat to depart, I found 
myself so much affected, that, letting my children 
pass on before me, like one formerly, I almost un- 
consciously turned my face to the wall, and poured 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 00 

out a secret libation to the God of the spirits of all 
flesh." 

At another time, after expressing his concern that 
he might not be deprived of a lively sense of his own 
responsibilities as a parent and a Christian, he says, 
u There is one spot whereon, whether the storm 
makes sailing dangerous, or the calm renders it im- 
practicable, I seldom cast anchor in vain • I mean in 
the endeavor not to seek great things, either spiritual 
or temporal, for myself. And yet even here, such is 
our weakness, and such are the snares that are laid 
for it, that without the renewed and quickening en- 
ergy of Divine Wisdom and power, w T e may even in 
the quiet and pleasant harbor of humble resignation 
itself, become entangled or arrested in our course, so 
as to fall short of fighting the good fight of faith, or 
running with patience the race which heavenly illu- 
mination, and that only, can from time to time disco- 
ver, or in Scriptural expression, set before us. 

" Under the discouragements which the Christian 
meets with, both from within and without, and which 
I apprehend under one form or another must have 
been his companion in every age of the Church, the 
discovery of a kindred mind must always have been, 
as it now is, a very alleviating and cheering circum- 
stance ; which more than most other things confirms 
us in the hope that, notwithstanding all that through 
our declension has befallen us, we are not yet become 
a people forsaken of their God, but that such among 
us who truly fear Him are, as their forefathers were, 



56 MEMOIR OF 

truly precious in his sight, and by the Spirit of his 
Son, are also like them made dear one unto another. 

" How sweetly is the badge of discipleship, to which 
thou hast alluded, still found to characterize and 
unite individuals of similar experience, and how 
cementing its influence, when like a garment of fel- 
lowship, and a zone of concord, it pervades and en- 
circles those solemn assemblies, convened, it is true, 
for the more immediate services of our own Society, 
but extending, may it not be hoped, through the 
medium of this universal love, a salubrious influence 
to the whole family of mankind ! And here I would 
just observe, that our Yearly Meetings of later years, 
and especially at their close, have seemed to me to 
be remarkably distinguished by the prevalence and 
circulation of that charity which I have faintly at- 
tempted to describe." 

In the year 1833, at the period of one of those 
solemn assemblies to which he alludes, being pre- 
vented by feeble health from attending, he thus 
addresses one of his valued friends : 

"Being permitted to enjoy a degree of quietness 
in staying at home, which I hope is not the apathy 
of a false rest, I would not admit gloomy forebodings 
as to the Yearly Meeting ; yet without either officious- 
ness or an over-solicitude, I may perhaps express to 
thee a desire that attends me, that concerned Friends 
may watch with jealous care two great turning points, 
or leading principles of our Society, if not of Chris- 
tianity itself; namely, the universality of Divine 
grace, and as I think was properly designated in a 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 57 

general epistle a few years since, though it gave 
offence to some, the perceptible influence of this 
grace upon the mind of man. Were I to give up 
either of these points, I should resemble a vessel at 
sea without sail or rudder, the sport of winds and 
waves, and be consequently in great danger of mak- 
ing shipwreck of faith. 

'* " There is also another point on which the watch- 
men and watch women on our walls may do well, both 
in meetings and out of them, to keep a quiet and 
steady eye. I mean the character of our adorable 
Redeemer in all his offices and attributes. Respect- 
ing; which, if I may be allowed a^ain to introduce 
myself, it will be to make the full and free acknow- 
ledgment, that, were it not for an assurance of the 
sufficiency of his atonement for sins past, of his me- 
diation and advocacy for my every day faults, and 
finally of his love and mercy as a compassionate 
High Priest, touched with a feeling of my infirmi- 
ties j and in this capacity at the great clay of account, 
introducing my disembodied soul into the presence 
of that awful Majesty and ineffable Glory which 
otherwise I dare not approach, and could not behold : 
I say — were it not for hopes and expectations like 
these, I should not only be of all men, but of ail 
animal existences, the most miserable. I might then 
envy the passing brute, and like one we read of, 
when congratulated on his worldly felicity, my heart 
would respond by a groan unutterable to his agonizing 
thought, c Othat I were that dog V 

u Well, here I stand, sometimes trembling stand, 



58 MEMOIR OF 

as on the brink of eternity; and whatever worldly 
wisdom might think of it, this is the result of my 
experience. that it may never cost another what 
through unbelief and disobedience it has cost me to 
attain it ! But I believe it is now as it was formerly 
declared to be, because of unbelief that we do not 
sooner — and if unbelief is persisted in — ever enter 
into rest. 

"If we did but leave our times on all subjects 
more quietly than we sometimes do in the Lord's 
hand, we should feel the better for it ourselves, and 
probably be less displeasing to Him. I am fully 
convinced of this, but often find myself failing in 
practice. A day however is approaching wherein 
this and all my other infirmities shall, I reverently 
hope, be covered with a mantle, purchased for me by 
the precious blood of the immaculate Lamb." 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 59 



CHAPTER VI. 

A few more extracts from the letters written to- 
wards the close of his life are now inserted. They 
present the blessings which a Christian believer 
enjoys in this life in an assured trust in the protect- 
ing care of Divine Providence, and in the lively 
hope of a blessed immortality ; and may form a suit- 
able finish to the portraiture which we have attempted 
of the character of this excellent man. 

"Ah, how much do we owe to this Divine Provi- 
dence which watcheth over us by day and by night, 
not only feeding and clothing us, not only preserving 
us from sudden and violent death, and all the greater 
calamities incident to our present state, but in an in- 
visible and incomprehensible manner surrounding 
our path and our bed, and ordering minor things for 
us, beyond what we could ask or think. This is a 
slight sketch of my present faith very hastily ex- 
pressed; should it prove like one of those transient 
interviews which we sometimes compare to iron 
sharpening iron, my end will be answered." 

"To , 



" How sweet is the union, and how delightful the 
communion, of saints ! By this appellation I mean 
those, and those only, who, according to their mea- 



60 MEMOIR OF 

sure, whatever that measure may be, are what they 
are 'through sanctification of the Spirit unto obe- 
dience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ/ 
a doctrine which, if fully admitted, leaves nothing 
for the creature to glory in, and leads to the humble 
acknowledgment that our sufficiency is not of our- 
selves, but of God. I am the more tenacious on this 
point, because there are not wanting, in the present 
as in past days, certain plausible popular speakers 
and writers, who, whilst they would not perhaps 
assert it in words, appear covertly to assume the un- 
true and dangerous opinion, that man is fully com- 
petent to his own concerns, spiritual and temporal. 
In both I believe he has need of the blessing and 
aid of a superintending Providence." 

" To , 



" Were it not for a little of the Christian's faith 
and hope, what should I — what should any of us 
sometimes do ? As it is, though most unworthy, I 
sometimes endeavor to cling to these ; commiserating, 
to a degree which I cannot fully express, those who 
unhappily want, because they seek not, or reject this 
support. 

" Whither, ah ! whither shall the confirmed unbe- 
liever fly in the day when he is called to an account ? 
This is a query that frequently and deeply affects me 
in contemplating the refined infidelity, the false, the 
bewildering philosophy of the present day, which so 
far as I can understand it, denies Christ in the most 
essential and important part of his character, even 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. Gl 

his divinity. Inseparable from such a denial as this, 
is there not reason to fear, may be the awful and po- 
sitive declaration of the Savior himself ? i Whosoever 
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny be- 
fore my Father which is in heaven." 

"To , 



" That I may ever be found among the remnant, 
however small its number, who, under all circum- 
stances, are desirous of pleasing and serving the 
Lord, is, I think, my continual and earnest desire. 
On the closest examination, I cannot discover, great 
as my weakness is, any change in this secret bent 
and purpose of my heart, which I therefore reverently 
hope is fixed, trusting in the Lord, and trusting also 
that, through the continued assistance of his grace, 
all may yet, before very long, end well for time and 
eternity. Thus impressed, I therefore conclude to 
wade and struggle on, deep and dark though the op- 
posing waters be ; for we know that although we are 
every way unworthy of the notice and love of our 
Kedeemer, yet He is altogether worthy of ours. We 
know also that every blessing we can enjoy, temporal 
or spiritual, must proceed from Him : forsaking or 
forgetting Him, to whom then shall we go ? 

" I think I never before so clearly comprehended, 
or so highly appreciated the important Gospel doc- 
trine of the forgiveness of sins, as during the cloudy 
and otherwise comfortless season of which I have 
attempted to give thee some idea. In the midst of 
surrounding gloom, this cheering and soul-sustaining 
6 



62 MEMOIR OP 

doctrine has been like a lantern to my feet, health 
and marrow to my bones — all in all to me. Grant me 
but this, my Redeemer ! I have been ready to cry, 
and I have nothing else to hope, to fear, and to pray 
for. Blessed, indeed, is the man whose transgressions 
are blotted out, and whose sins are pardoned : yea, 
happy, thrice happy, is the man to whom the Lord 
imputeth not sin. Covered with the robe of righteous- 
ness, clothed in the wedding garments of salvation 
and praise, even the forgiven sinner may triumphantly 
exclaim, ' Come, Lord Jesus ! Come quickly! Thy 
poor, unworthy servant, leaning on thy mercy, is 
ready V" 

« To , 



" It would be the depth of ingratitude not to ac- 
knowledge that, during my present confinement, I 
have been favored, and I hope I do not deceive my- 
self, with the clearest and most satisfactory view of 
the Christian's faith and hope, or rather of his salva- 
tion, that I ever witnessed — a salvation which has 
appeared to me to consist in the forgiveness of sins, 
through the atoning sacrifice of the blood of Christ 
— in reconciliation with the Father, by the mediation 
and intercession of the same blessed advocate and 
Redeemer — in power over all the power of our soul's 
enemies; and finally, as the consequence and con- 
summation of all these, in the promise of the life 
that now is, and of that which is to come ; even of a 
city that hath foundations — an inheritance eternal, 
incorruptible, that fadeth not away. Although I be- 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 63 

lieve thou art much conversant on this deeply inter- 
esting subject, yet I do not think I could give thee 
an adequate idea of the preciousness of those mo- 
ments, wherein light shone upon my tabernacle ; nor 
how great my distress when, as in Peter's vision, the 
sheet was taken up again from whence it came." 

" To , 



u Here I would pause to observe, how entirely at 
this eleventh hour of my life, I feel dependent upon 
the atoning sacrifice of a Redeemer, or in other 
words, upon the mercy of God in and through Christ 
Jesus for the forgiveness of all my sins, both of 
omission and commission. For after all we have 
done, or can do, in the way of our duty, we are still 
but unprofitable servants, and shall at last have need 
of the intercession of that Great High Priest, who, 
touched with a feeling of our infirmities, can avail- 
ingly plead for us — to Him then let us flee ; to Him 
let us cleave. 

" ***** * I seldom am more comfortable than 
when I feel the greatest charity for others, and the 
least indulgence for myself; desiring that whatever 
I may be denominated, on earth, I may at last be 
numbered with the general assembly and church of 
the first-born, whose names are written in Heaven. 
And this Church, I rejoice in being able with in- 
creasing faith and hope to believe, is composed of 
every nation, kindred, tongue and people : yea, of 
every individual who feareth God and worketh 
righteousness. 



64 MEMOIR OP 

"A poor, irresolute, and fallen creature, is desirous 
of obtaining a crown immortal, by i fighting the good 
fight of faith/ against those potent enemies, the 
world, the flesh, and the devil ) the world, in all its 
seductive and terrific vicissitudes ; the flesh, in its 
corruptions; and the devil, in the plenitude of his 
malevolence and power. ! merciful and omnipo- 
tent Lord God, be pleased to assist a trembling sin- 
ner in this unequal warfare, or the victory can never 
be obtained ; but through thy aid in Christ Jesus we 
may be made more than conquerors. With Thee, 
all things are possible, and thy strength is made per- 
fect in human weakness. As without Thee nothing 
that is truly good can prosper, so against thy holy 
will and power, nothing that is evil shall ever be able 
to prevail. 

u most gracious God ! be pleased for thy great 
Name's sake, thy dear Son's sake, and my immortal 
soul's sake, to forgive the manifold infirmities of a 
vain and roving imagination. Pardon, I humbly and 
reverently pray Thee, the mighty sins of my youth 
by actual transgression • and if it be not too much to 
implore even of thy infinite mercy, love me freely. 
When I groan the unspeakable groan, incline thine 
ear to hear • when I shed — alas, how seldom ! — the 
tear of contrition, put it into thy bottle \ and if ever 
at thy command, and by the assistance of thy grace, 
I have performed the least work of faith and obe- 
dience, let it be recorded in thy book of remem- 
brance, that through the intercession of thy appointed 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. G5 

Mediator, I may finally be emboldened to render up 
my account, with humble confidence and trembling 

joy." 

In the early part of the second month, 1835, Jona- 
than Hutchinson was taken alarmingly ill whilst on a 
visit to one of his sons ; and for several days there 
appeared to himself and those about him but little 
prospect of his recovery. Throughout the whole of 
this illness, during which his sufferings were at times 
very severe, he was mercifully preserved in great 
patience, and resignation to the Divine will. To a 
friend who visited him, he remarked, "When the 
world is receding from us, and eternity opening to 
our view, how precious it is to have an interest in a 
Redeemer ! how delightful it is to know Him to be 
our Redeemer, our Mediator, our Advocate with the 
Father, and above all our Saviour I" As the pros- 
pect of a separation from his friends increased, he 
was very anxious to bear his testimony to the reality 
and efficacy of the immediate visitations of the Spirit 
of Truth, of the operations of which he gave some 
remarkable instances in his own experience. 

After a few weeks, he so far recovered as to be 
able to return home, where his health and strength 
gradually improved. The evening before his death 
he spent very cheerfully with his family, and retired 
to rest as well as usual. About two in the morning, 
he was seized with violent pain in the chest, which 
continued with but little intermission for about an 
6* e 



66 MEMOIR OF 

hour. During this time he was perfectly sensible, 
and at times supplicated for ease. This was merci- 
fully granted about three, and after a few minutes 
of peaceful tranquillity, he gently ceased to breathe 
— on the first of the fourth month, 1835, in the se- 
venty-sixth year of his age. 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 67 



A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF JONATHAN 
HUTCHINSON. 



BY J. J. GURNEY 



" It was on a beautiful bright day of sunshine, when 
his favorite green Gredney looked greener than usual, 
that rny late dear wife and myself attended the funeral 
of my beloved friend and father in the truth, Jona- 
than Hutchinson. A great many friends were con- 
vened from different places, and the villagers of the 
place and neighborhood flocked in large numbers, 
and in their most decent dresses, to pay their last 
token of respect to ' the best man of Gredney/ ' So 
the best man in Gredney is gone/ said one poor 
laborer to another. i What V said the other, i is Mr. 
Hutchinson dead V His remains were deposited in a 
little family burying-ground, not very far from his 
own home, where his respectable though not wealthy 
predecessors had been laid in their turns during se- 
veral generations, and which he had taken the pains 
to plant with considerable taste. Indeed it was truly 
remarkable with what skill this ardent and almost 
poetic lover of nature, had contrived to adorn, by 
judicious planting, the small estate of rich pasture 
land which he inherited from his ancestors, who had 
possessed and occupied the same little farm as he did 



68 MEMOIR OF 

for the period, as I understand, of about two hun- 
dred years, never rising above or falling below the 
rank of reputable yeomen; and since the rise of 
Friends, members of that religious Society. No- 
thing can be said of the picturesque appearance of 
low Lincolnshire ; but to this general remark, his 
little domain, cultivated and adorned as it was by its 
late beloved owner, forms a striking exception. 

" To revert to the funeral ; it was an occasion of 
precious, comforting solemnity. The meeting-house 
is at the distance of a mile from the place of inter- 
ment; but the assembled company followed the train 
of friends and relations, first to the grave, and after- 
wards to the meeting, in the most orderly manner. 
The meeting afforded a full opportunity for reverenf 
waiting upon the Lord, and for the preaching of the 
glorious Gospel of our Holy Redeemer : at the grave, 
the thickening circle of friends and neighbors were 
also addressed ; all seemed united not only in a sense 
of their own great loss, but in some view and appre- 
hension of his blessedness — the blessedness of one 
who had lived and died in the Lord. The striking 
mark of affection and respect which was shown on 
that day by the inhabitants of a rather extensive 
district around his home, was obviously the result 
of the influence which is gradually obtained over a 
surrounding population by the weight of sound, prac- 
tical, but unostentatious Christianity. The good man 
was gone ; the meek, kind, humble, generous neigh- 
bor was no more ; and many were they of every de- 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 69 

scription who seemed ready to rally round his grave 
in the remembrance of his virtues. 

" Never did I meet with a fellow pilgrim towards 
the heavenly Zion, who was more acutely and more 
constantly alive to his own demerits. He used to tell 
me that this was a point on which his many afflictions 
peculiarly led him to dwell. ' Never mind/ would 
he say, i I am fully aware that whatsoever it befalls 
me to suffer, I deserve it ; and that whatsoever of 
comfort and happiness is cast into my cup of mixture, 
it is all of unmerited kindness and mercy/ He knew 
much of the depth of the fall of man, and of the 
extent and awfulness of his ruin by nature; and just 
in proportion to his visions and feelings on this sub- 
ject, was his estimate of the infinite value of Jesus 
— Immanuei — the Saviour of mankind. 

" It was at an early period of our acquaintance 
that we were companions on the committee of the 
Yearly Meeting appointed to try the appeal of the 
late Thomas Foster, who had been disowned for hold- 
ing and propagating Unitarian sentiments. After the 
committee had come to the conclusion to confirm the 
disownment, and had settled down into deep and so- 
lemn silence, it was Jonathan Hutchinson who broke 
that silence in the following expressions : i I know 
not how my brethren may be affected, but I heartily 
rejoice in the decision of the committee; for as it 
regards myself, I can indeed say with truth, that 
without Christ I should be of all men most misera- 
ble/ These words indicated the constant tenor of 
his mind on the subject of religion; and whilst he 



70 MEMOIR OF 

never let down the standard of practical piety, and 
ever pleaded for that Divine influence which can 
alone prepare us for heaven, he was anxious that in 
the declarations and writings of his friends, the door 
should be left fully open for the poor penitent who 
even at the eleventh hour, even in his latest extre- 
mity, like the thief on the cross, should turn with 
all his heart and in simple faith, to Him in whom 
dwells all the fulness of saving righteousness and 
forgiving mercy. 

" He was humble in a larger and deeper sense of 
the expression than is often the case even with ex- 
perienced Christians, and looked back with many 
tears, and sometimes with conflict of spirit, to the 
wanderings of his early days. I am not aware that 
he ever indulged in the vices, or even much of the 
gaiety of the world ; but his imagination was fertile, 
he was of a contemplative turn of mind, and he was 
at one time during his early manhood much inclined 
to a hard-hearted speculative unbelief, a state of mind 
closely connected with the pride of intellect, and an 
almost obstinate unwillingness to sacrifice his inde- 
pendence, and to bow his neck under the yoke of 
Christ. He spent much of his time, I believe, in 
solitary rides over the country, when his mind had 
full leisure to roam at large in those regions of dan- 
gerous speculation to which he was prone ) but the 
Lord met with him on his way by some remarkable 
visitations, and thus brought him home to himself 
in the ever-blessed covenant of light and life. 

" Living in a retired village, the principal member 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 71 

of a very small meeting, and belonging to a Quarterly 
Meeting, the members of which were by no means 
numerous, and scattered over an extensive district, 
our dear friend enjoyed far less frequent opportuni- 
ties of religious association than fall to the lot of 
many of his brethren. He presented a remarkable 
example of that silent growth in grace, of that gra- 
dual deepening of the root, and unfolding of the 
precious plant above, which is sometimes effected by 
virtue of the dews and rains of heaven with very 
little of human instrumentality — the advancing pro- 
cess being little perceptible from day to day to the 
beholders, much less to the individual who is grow- 
ing, but nevertheless real, f first the blade, then the 
ear, then the full corn in the ear/ I have often 
found occasion to observe in visiting friends in various 
parts of the country, that it is not always those who 
have the greatest advantages in point of outward ad- 
ministration who make the greatest progress in the 
Truth. I have sometimes found brethren and sisters 
in solitary places — young people as well as old — who 
very seldom enjoyed the privilege of hearing the 
Gospel preached, but who nevertheless were evi- 
dently living under the enlivening, guiding, and 
restraining influences of the Holy Spirit. Just such 
was eminently the subject of this memoir; though 
he had once been a revolter against the Lord, and 
though but little of human help fell to his portion 
he had his blessed share in the fulfilment of tha. 
gracious promise, ( I will be as the dew unto Israei 



J 4 MEMOIR or 

he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as 
Lebanon/ 

" While the experience of very many in our So- 
ciety affords a proof of the excellence of those prin- 
ciples which tend to wean us from every arm of flesh, 
and to bring us into immediate dependence on Him 
in whom are our springs, there is nothing in this ex- 
perience which in any degree justifies the neglect 
of those lawful and profitable means of religious 
edification which our heavenly Father has placed 
within our reach. Among the most important of 
these means is the perusal of the Holy Scriptures. 
Our late beloved friend was diligent in the perform- 
ance of this duty — a duty which perfectly coincided 
with that devotional taste which now marked his 
character. He loved the Scriptures, as containing 
the message of his God, a message unutterably dear 
to him because it testified of Christ ; nor were any 
parts of the volume so precious to him, as those 
which set forth the helplessness and corruption of 
fallen man on one hand, and the treasures of redeem- 
ing love on the other. The humiliations of David, 
and the love, faith, and allegiance of Paul, were 
equally familiar to his penitent spirit. 

"Another means of spiritual benefit in the use of 
which Jonathan Hutchinson was remarkably diligent, 
was the regular attendance of his meetings, both for 
worship and discipline. In order to be present at 
the latter, in which his weight of character and 
sound discretion gave him large influence, he was 
accustomed to pass much of his time in travelling; 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 73 

for liis Monthly Meeting was generally held at places 
considerably distant from Gedney, and his Quarterly 
Meetings at Lincoln, fifty miles from his home. No 
inclemency of weather, no controllable inconvenience, 
prevented his regularly attending these meetings, 
greatly to the comfort of his friends ; nor was the 
time passed in solitude on the road an idle time to 
him. His thoughts and contemplations were upon 
God, upon his people, upon his precious cause, 

" I never knew Jonathan Hutchinson as a husband, 
for his wife was dead before our acquaintance com- 
menced ) but I can testify that he was a tender, affec- 
tionate, careful father. "With his two daughters, 
Eachel and Lydia, he kept up an intimate, individual 
friendship. They both married, and died in their 
confinement : Lydia in her father's lifetime, Eachel 
after his death. Their memory is dear to me ; for 
they were worthy of their parent, and fondly che- 
rished him as the object of their unfeigned reverence 
as well as love. He was a person of far too good 
sense to attempt an escape from his true sphere of 
life, or to neglect the business by which he main- 
tained his family. He was a skilful, practical farmer, 
exceeded, I believe, by none of his neighbors in such 
matters ; yet he was very far superior to the generality 
of persons of his class in point of intellectual culti- 
vation. He read much and variously, and thought 
deeply and largely on many subjects; nor did he ne- 
glect the wholesome cultivation even of the imagina- 
tion. He was fond of poetry, and I venture to assert 
that the beauties of nature were to him clothed in 
7 



H MEMOIR OF 

almost double brightness. No man better understood 
the meaning of the poet's words, ' My Father made 
them all/ 

" With such pursuits, tastes, and habits of mind, 
and with a disposition remarkably formed for friend- 
ship, he was a choice companion to all who shared 
an intimate association with him, both old and young. 
One hour of tete-a-tete with him, never failed to be a 
source of pure pleasure to me ; for the resources of 
his mind were rich, and the glow of religion was 
over them all. Our close agreement on all points of 
a religious nature, and on many of a merely intellec- 
tual character, was the means of bringing us into a 
near and easy friendship, which I shall, I believe, 
always look back upon as one of the choicest privi- 
leges of my life. 

" Before I conclude, I would say a few words on 
the subject of his ministry. It was very peculiar, 
being a large gift in a few words. His communica- 
tions were almost uniformly very short • seldom con- 
tinued for more than a few minutes ) but they were 
remarkably full of matter, evangelical in substance, 
simple in manner, and lively through the power of 
the Holy Spirit. They were often that on which 
the contemplative mind might dwell for hours. In 
prayer he was fervent, humble, simple, and em- 
phatic. 

"A painful disease, I believe in the heart, carried 
him off very suddenly. The unexpected attack came 
on in the course of the night, after he had retired to rest 
considerably better than usual. The pain was violent, 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 75 

though short ; and death ensued without the oppor- 
tunity of any expression except a very short prayer, 
and I may add, without a struggle. Surely this be- 
loved friend, this humble devoted Christian, rests in 
Jesus ; surely when Christ, who is our life, shall ap- 
pear, he will appear with Him in glory. May I die 
the death of the righteous : and may my last end be 
like his ! Amen and amen. 

" J. J. GrURNEY. 

u On board the Monongahela, from Liverpool 
to Philadelphia, 7 mo. 22, 1837." 



SELECTIONS 



FROM THE 



LETTERS OF JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 



To Joseph Gurney. 

" 1807, 4 mo. 11. — I feel a liberty to give thee some 
account of my own journeying thus far through the 
devious paths of life. Although I received but a 
common education, yet I contracted at an early period 
a much greater inclination to the pursuit of abstract 
and metaphysical inquiries than simple and obvious 
truths. By this means, as might be expected, my 
incautious and inexperienced feet soon became en- 
tangled in the snares of that vain and false philoso- 
phy, which, according to the beautiful language of 
the poet, only ' leads to bewilder and dazzles to 
blind/ and so perplexes the mind with shade after 
shade, that doubt succeeding doubt, like still ascend* 
ing mountains, at length presents an awful and almost 
inaccessible barrier between the soul and its God. 

" Well, my dear friend, through this land of dark- 
ness and shadow of death I have wandered, where 
none knows but myself, and few could believe what 
I met with. Suffice it at present to say, that even 

(76) 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. i i 

here Divine mercy and regard were manifested for 
my deliverance, sometimes by the melting language 
of invitation and love, and at others by stripe de- 
servedly succeeding stripe. But alas ! I had become 
such an enemy to the Cross, and was so desirous of 
finding an easier way to the kingdom than by it, that 
it was not until I had tried almost everything, and 
was reduced by the mere force of mental affliction, 
that I could be prevailed upon to submit to its salu- 
tary discipline : since which — as indeed infinite is 
the obligation — I hope I have not been wilfully re- 
bellious ) but though in much weakness and fear, yet, 
I trust, in some good degree of simplicity and since- 
rity, I have endeavored to run with patience the race 
that is set before me. 

"But that which has most particularly impressed 
me as matter for serious communication, is an appre- 
hension that has for some time attended me, that in 
this day of too general departure from the ancient 
paths of simplicity and truth which our forefathers 
believed it their duty to walk in, those who may be 
designed by Infinite Wisdom to support the charac- 
ters of such judges as the first, and such counsellors 
as were found in the beginning of our Society — and 
who from the fewness of their numbers and the soli- 
tude of their situations, may be compared to one of 
a city, and two of a family — will have to go deep into 
suffering. And though it is very far from my design 
either to weaken or depreciate the strong and tender 
ties of natural affection, domestic endearment, or 

social love, which not only form what is most estima- 

7 * 



78 LETTERS OF 

ble in the bond of outward union, but as sweeteners 
of the mingled cup of life are enjoyments which I 
believe religion allows us freely to partake of, — yet 
I also believe that some of those who are obedient to 
the call above mentioned, will have to pass through 
trials similar to what not unfrequently have attended 
newly-convinced persons, experiencing the truth of 
our Lord's declaration, that He came not to send 
peace on earth, but a sword. This at first sight ap- 
pears so hard a saying, that we are ready to say, Who 
indeed can bear it ? yet though the trial still remains, 
the difficulty seems much reconciled by considering 
that the difference in question is of a nature which 
does not lessen the affection of the true disciple to- 
wards those from whom he may nevertheless feel 
himself bound to dissent, both in judgment and prac- 
tice : though for a time, for want of being fully 
understood by them, it may fare with him as with 
the apostle formerly, " The more he loves, the less he 
is loved/' 

u This is a situation which surely may be compared 
to Jacob's trouble, wherein the mind, clothed with 
unusual sensibility, and peculiarly alive to every 
tender impulse and painful emotion, feels a contempt- 
uous look or a reproachful word, to be like a sharp 
sword, aiming, and alas often too successfully, a 
wounding blow at the heart, which seems to exceed 
in poignancy and anguish, even what we have ever 
conceived to be the pangs of natural death, and which 
we also feel to be dangerous. may it never be de- 
structive to that spiritual life, which is hid from the 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 79 

wise and prudent of this world j for did they behold 
it, charity inclines us to hope, they would not thus 
persecute it. 

"In these seasons of deep probation, may we re- 
member for our encouragement, that the Captain of 
our salvation was made perfect through sufferings, — 
that He was treated with every kind of ignominy and 
insult, and finally in the opinion of men led to a 
shameful and inglorious death. And may the remem- 
brance of these things animate us with fresh courage 
to renew our endeavors to follow him even to Calvary, 
bearing his reproach. 

" I hope thou wilt not consider what has dropped 
from me on these serious subjects as calculated to 
throw unnecessary gloom or difficulty upon the nar- 
row way which leads to life. I am, at least if I know 
my own heart, very differently disposed, and would, 
were it possible, as many are vainly endeavoring to 
do, strew it with flowers ; but I know too well the 
folly of such an attempt. I think I have found, by 
an experience purchased at no easy rate, that the 
divine truths of the Christian religion will not bend 
to accommodate the selfish views of the natural man. 
No, immovable as the rock from whence they sprang, 
they will, like it, for ever bid defiance to all the op- 
position which the united powers of violence and 
sophistry can bring against them. What I then so 
earnestly covet, and which seems to be the ground 
of my present exercise for myself and for thee, is, 
that we may become more and more firmly established 
in these inestimable, essential, and unchangeable 



80 LETTERS OF 

truths; that our hearts may indeed become fixed, 
trusting in the Lord alone ; and that we may be so 
built upon Him, as never more to be separated from 
his love." 



To Joseph G-urney. 

" 1809, 10 mo. 28.— As to hope, even that of the 
hypocrite, I do not know that I need accuse myself, 
seeing I generally find it so difficult to keep hope of 
any sort alive in my breast. Indeed to thee I may 
say, in our reciprocal freedom, that one of my sorest 
conflicts is, and has been much of my life, with 
reiterated temptations, to cast it quite away. And I 
find, as perhaps thou mayst have also found, that by 
looking too much outward, either into the general 
state of the world, at the desolations in our Society, 
or upon the inexplicable nature of our own indivi- 
dual trials, these temptations acquire at seasons an 
almost invincible strength ; so that, by a choice of 
difficulties of the most awful kind, we are compelled 
to adopt the apostle's practice, to avert our eyes from 
these discouraging prospects, and fix them upon 
things which are unseen and eternal — upon that 
power and wisdom which are from above, and which 
only can deliver us from temptation. Yes, my dear 
friend, though an admirer of the noble faculty of 
human reason, and, like minds of a similar cast, be- 
trayed, as I often have been, by this admiration, into 
unprofitable theories; yet I think few have more 
painfully experienced its utter incompetence to guide 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 81 

us safely through this state of deep probation, or to 
preserve us in a situation of divine acceptance. I 
have often, very often, been brought down, as from 
the tree of knowledge, and the mountain of specula- 
tion, and reduced to extremity, wherein, as with the 
weakness of a little child, and the simplicity of a 
fool, I have, partly in broken expression, but more 
frequently in that language which cannot be uttered, 
begged for preservation; and that the Lord would 
not forsake me in my passage through this world, 
which, amidst all that beauty my heart has so much 
admired and. enjoyed, has yet, in the course of its 
vicissitudes, often assumed in my view the form of a 
waste, howling wilderness. Somewhat after this man- 
ner, both for myself and my dear friends, wherever 
scattered outwardly or however captivated spiritually, 
I was, after a night partly spent in much exercise, 
enabled yesterday morning to supplicate with tears. 
This I esteemed a great favor, as not being at my 
own command, nor at all congenial to the natural 
hardness, or, if thou please, unbelief of my heart. 

" I observe, with concern, that the conflicts of 

have terminated in a conclusion to leave the Society. 
Whatever they may think, I do not believe they will 
find a better, though perhaps, to the natural part, an 
easier way. This conclusion is not, I think, either 
the result of prejudice or education, but (with such 
abilities as I possess) of a careful investigation of the 
subject, with a strong natural propensity towards 
greater liberty than consistency with our profession 
allows. For the sake of a way less narrow, and per- 

F 



82 LETTERS OF 

haps partly aware and ashamed of nry own deviations, 
than which nothing exposes ns more to contempt, I 
have in early life wished I had not been born in the 
Society. In the folly and exultation of my inexpe- 
rienced mind, I have said, I could not see the neces- 
sity of carrying a badge of Quakerism about me. And 
yet, after all this, I have been induced, from convic- 
tion, to submit to part with things which I once 
highly valued, and to take up others which I equally 
despised. And though I am willing to grant that 
our inconsistencies may have been stumbling-blocks, 
yet I cannot believe that our principles, with all the 
restraints that they impose, can ever become so in 
any other view than that wherein Christ crucified 
was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks 
foolishness. 

" I also believe that those peculiar testimonies, as 
we generally call them, which distinguish us from 
other religious professions, stand upon an immutable 
foundation ; being not only consonant with the doc- 
trines of the Gospel, and with the rules of the purest 
morality, but with the deepest researches also, and 
the most sublime and profound philosophy, although 
at the latter observation I am aware that the world 
would smile. I will venture, however, to ask it, 
whether silent worship, for which we are perhaps as 
much distinguished and derided as for any peculiarity 
we possess — I would ask the world whether this 
strange thing will not bear the trial I have proposed. 
If, therefore, I were to address these wanderers from 
our fold, it perhaps would be in the expostulatory 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 83 

language of our Lord, when many were departing 
from Him, ' Will ye also go away V reminding them 
also of Peter's answer, i To whom shall we go V and 
without invidious comparison, when all things are 
fairly taken into account, not forgetting even our de- 
solations, I think we may say on the present occa- 
sion, i To whom indeed shall we go V I trust I can 
unite with thee in desire that the Truth might arise 
into dominion, in its own dignified authority; but 
we must be willing to wade through low and suffer- 
ing times, in patience endeavoring to possess our 
souls, and thankful if our own lives are but merci- 
fully given us for a prey." 



a To Elizabeth Storr. 

"1810, 1 mo. 23. — I trust our reciprocal regard, 
which has borne the trial of time and many change- 
ful events, will not now, when life is verging towards 
its decline, forsake us; but (should such make a part 
of the future felicity of the righteous, and we be 
happily numbered among them) I would rather hope 
that this mutual esteem may accompany us into re- 
gions celestial, where, with many a clear friend gone 
before us, we may unite in praising that great and 
worthy name, which has preserved through many 
tribulations and temptations, to his heavenly king- 
dom ) for it is through these, if admitted at all, that 
we must obtain an entrance. 

" Wherefore may we, my dear friend, not looking 



84 LETTERS OF 

too much at those we have already passed through 
1 as things which are behind/ rather endeavor after a 
pressing forward i toward the mark for the prize of 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus/ In this 
pursuit, may we with patience and resignation meet 
every event which may yet remain as a constituent 
portion of the fall measure of our afflictions. 

61 My mind has dwelt often in solitude; and yet to 
this solitude, though naturally fond of society, I am 
become much more reconciled than some might sup- 
pose. Indeed, the solemnity of my introduction into 
deep mental retirement, and the repetition of strokes 
over which I had no control, seem, in a language at 
once dignified and awful, to have proclaimed acqui- 
escence throughout every faculty of the mind. But 
though thus forbidden to complain, I am still left to 
feel ; to my severest feelings I endeavor to oppose a 
consideration of the many favors yet left me ; among 
which I think none stands more exalted in my view, 
than the lengthening time afforded me as an oppor- 
tunity for bewailing the follies and errors of my youth, 
and for endeavoring to work out, though at seasons 
attended with many fears, the most important busi- 
ness of the sours salvation." 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. b5 



"To Elizabeth Storr. 

" 1812, 8 mo. 30. — The kind attentions and opinions 
of my friends sometimes humble me ; for though I 
think I behold in the practice of Christianity a beau- 
tiful and inestimable object to aim at, and am at times 
concerned to recommend the glorious attainment of 
it to others, yet in pressing after it my own conflicts 
are such, that I can pretty often feelingly apply to 
myself this line of one of our admired poets — 

" « For me, scarce hoping to obtain that rest.' 

" Is it not strange, that after all I have in mercy 
suffered, there should yet be in me the least inclina- 
tion to deviate from the paths of holiness and peace, 
or to linger in the way of manifested duty ? In spite 
of self-love this is surprising, and must surely rank 
among the most incontestable proofs of a fallen na- 
ture, and of the consequent need I have of a com- 
passionate and powerful Eedeemer. These considera- 
tions are humbling to the natural mind ; but let us 
not faint, though I am ready to think that not only 
myself, but many others cannot dwell much too low 
to be just above despair. This might appear almost 
to some a frightful sentiment, but it will not, I be- 
lieve, much alarm thee 5 for it may probably form a 
part of thy experience, that those who know the most 
of their Creator and themselves, are by this know- 
ledge baptized into deep humiliation ; yea, such at 
seasons is their abasement under a view of the Divine 



88 LETTERS OF 

mercy and forbearance on one hand, and their own 
omissions and commissions on tlie other, that with 
the poor publican they are not only ready to smite 
upon the breast, but are even prepared to go a little 
way with the scribe also, in concluding themselves 
not as other men are. 

" Here their paths divide : it was the effect of his 
self-righteousness to think himself better than others, 
but it is that of the Christian's self-knowledge to feel 
himself, worse than those with whom he was ac- 
quainted, so that taking all things into the account, 
he charges himself, as the great Apostle did, with 
being the chief of sinners. But when brought to 
such a sight and sense as this, may the repenting 
and returning prodigal never forget that he has a 
Saviour, a Mediator, an Advocate with the Father ; 
and may he never forget tremblingly to rejoice in 
Him. For if there be a class of mankind who are 
more than others the objects of redeeming love and 
mercy, it might seem to be these sinners, the un wor- 
thiest and vilest of the human race. So that to my 
own often depressed mind I would say, 'As thou hast 
received mercy, and hast tasted that the Lord is gra- 
cious, see that thou faint not, nor grow weary in well- 
doing/ 

u My hearing is restored, and with my general 
health has, since my returning from the yearly meet- 
ing, been pretty good. My friend C. F. has charita- 
bly supposed me to be established upon a foundation 
which the privation of these might not materially 
affect. I hope this may in some degree be the case. 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. b < 

My prospects are indeed much changed, so that when 
I can hope myself within the pale of mercy, death 
appears rather as a friend than an enemy. I feel 
with poor Job, that ' I would not live always ; ' that 
my sins and follies, with their needful corrections, 
have so embittered the present state of being, as to 
make it, upon the whole, a wearisome though an im- 
portant pilgrimage. I am thankful, however, under 
all my prospects, past, present, and future, for a de- 
sire which attends me, that patience may have its 
perfect work, and that I may wait in humble resigna- 
tion the appointed time till my change come ; and 
not only so, but endeavor to be content and thankful 
for the many blessings, both spiritual and temporal, 
which are still graciously vouchsafed to me, amongst 
which I remember ' friendship's cordial balm/ " 



"To Joseph G-urney. 

1813, 1 mo. 7. — I am desirous of keeping in my- 
self an eye of faith and hope (I speak with rever- 
ence) steadily fixed upon that God from whose bosom 
Jesus descended to this lower world, and upon that 
heaven to which He ascended when He left it, and 
where, as our Advocate, He now sits enthroned in 
glory at the right hand of his Father, making inter- 
cession for us. So that whilst I unequivocally allow 
that no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and 
he to whom the Son will reveal him ; that this reve- 
lation of the Son is in and by the Spirit ; and that 



88 LETTERS OF 

the manifestations of this Spirit are in the heart; 
yet I am also cheered and consoled by the intellectual 
prospect or hope which I have just been faintly at- 
tempting to describe, though I find it difficult to 
express by words an idea so full of beatitude." 



"To 



" 1817, 4 mo. 29. — As my mind is sometimes oc- 
cupied on the subject of Uiiitarianism, on the pains 
that are taking to propagate it in this country, and 
of the inroads which in some instances it has made 
even into our borders, it may not appear surprising 
that intercourse with one who seems likely to become 
an avowed and public opposer of it, should turn my 
serious thoughts into such a channel. Accordingly 
this I found to be the case when lately with thee, 
and this I find to be the case when thus addressing 
thee. 

" I believe I said when we were together, that I 
had a strong controversy with this pernicious (tho' 
I know it is a popular) thing, and that I thought the - 
transition easy from it to Deism — an opinion which 
I am so far from retracting, that I was about to illus- 
trate it a little by saying, that if on close analysis 
any difference between them can be found, I think 
it would be but a shade — that the distance from one 
to the other is only a step — and that this one step is 
rendered peculiarly easy, by its being on the descent 
— and though I would not say that Atheism is a ne- 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 89 

cessary consequence of the systems already men- 
tioned, yet I verily believe it lies but a few steps 
lower on the same declining scale. 

" When a man once loses his hold on the Divinity 
of Christ, he seems to me to part with Him as his 
Saviour, and to substitute his own self-sufficiency for 
the i grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ;' 
and by doing this, I should apprehend he must be 
in great danger of becoming either lukewarm* in 
religion, or a skeptical wrangler about it. Of the 
first, we know what is said in the New Testament, 
and the character of the last is, I think, well deli- 
neated under one class of Milton's fallen angels, who, 
although 

" ' Tliej reasoned high . 

Yet found no end in wandering mazes lost.' 

" Having spoken of the danger and facility of de- 
clining from one wrong step to another, leads me to 
the observation that right steps are generally consi- 
dered to be either straight forward or ascending — 
1 Let thine eyes look right on, and thine eyelids look 
straight before thee.' Jacob's ladder reached from 
earth to heaven — and as to the comparative difficulty 
and ease between good and evil, I think some poet 
has said 

" ' The way to Heaven is rough and hard, 
Smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to Hell;' 

an idea that seems to be corroborated by this decla- 
ration : i Wide is the gate and broad is the way that 

* Rev. iii. 16. 
8* 



90 LETTERS OF 

leadeth to destruction ; ' ( Straight is the gate and 
narrow is the way which leadeth unto life/ Oh, 
then, that all the dear unwary youth especially might 
not only be aware, but alarmed at the danger of 
taking one false step, either in opinion or practice — 
as in either case there is no saying where they may 
stop — indeed, I am inclined to think that this step 
is seldom made at option, but that practice will soon 
follow as a necessary and natural consequence." 



"To H. C. Backhouse. 

"1822, 8 mo. 31.— I still indulge a hope that 
Christian perfection itself remains to be as lovely in 
my eyes as ever, and so attractive, that under all re- 
pulses and drawbacks, I cannot help feebly — alas ! 
that it should be so feebly ! — pressing after it; with 
what success is known only to that Being who seeth 
not as man seeth, and whose thoughts being higher 
than our thoughts, and his ways higher than our 
ways, judgeth us, as we have cause to believe, by a 
very different rule to that by which we measure our- 
selves and one another. 

" How far advanced on the scale of the perfection 
just hinted at was the dignified apostle of the Gen- 
tiles ! This, notwithstanding the humble views he 
gives us of his own apprehended attainments, is evi- 
dent from the acknowledgments which truth, and a 
desire to edify others, sometimes extorted, as it were, 
from his lips or his pen. In 2 Cor. xi. 23-28, after 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 91 

recapitulating the almost unparalleled sufferings and 
dangers that attended his Christian course, we find 
him making this important and striking addition : 
i Besides those things that are without, that which 
cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches/ 

" Whether we view the apostle Paul's character by 
parts, or as a whole, we can scarcely refrain from an 
astonishment attended with this peculiarity, that 
however surprised, we are neither offended nor dis- 
mayed : on the contrary, we seem so united to him 
by affection, admiration and sympathy, as almost to 
feel ourselves in his company; at least we return 
from our meditation with renewed desire to run like 
him with patience the race set before us, and to be 
found with him in the footsteps of the flock of Christ's 
companions. 

" I really felt, and still feel, affected by the perusal 
of the intimate exposure of thy sufferings, bodily and 
mental, which thou hast laid before me, and I per- 
haps feel the more sensibly on this point, from the 
lively recollection thereby excited of things which, 
under various circumstances and at different periods 
of my life, I have also suffered j especially of that 
which appears to have been a grievous annoyance to 
the heaven-bound traveller, in ancient as well as in 
the present times, that ' when we would do good, evil 
is present with us/ 

" Perhaps there are few of our spiritual trials more 
perplexing than this, which may account for the me- 
morable exclamation, ' wretched man that I am/ 
&c. ; and when accompanied by reduction from other 



92 LETTER SOF 

causes, it must have an additional tendency to keep 
us weak and low, which may very possibly be the 
design of him who thus assails by his darts, and 
seeks to overwhelm us by his floods. For I believe 
it is an old trick of this our adversary to place evil 
before some minds at such times and in such a way, 
as that he may more easily succeed in another of his 
deepest devices, by persuading them that they have 
in thought at least joined with some of his tempta- 
tions, though from the very bottom of their souls 
they feel the deepest abhorrence of them all. But 
as one of our early friends has well observed, though 
these things may be called our temptations or buffer- 
ings, yet they are the sins of the enemy and not ours, 
as he would falsely insinuate ; and we may therefore 
return them to whom they belong, endeavoring at the 
same time to be as quiet as we can • and thus in due 
time we may find, as I trust thou hast repeatedly 
found to thy comfort, that i when the enemy comes 
in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a stand- 
ard against him/ 

" In the early part of my own life I was dreadfully 
harassed by evil suggestions, involuntarily excited in 
my mind, and charged upon me as sins; and being 
in a state of unbelief and disobedience, instead of 
being faithful and submissive to that which could 
only have wrought my deliverance, what I suffered 
in these conflicts is indescribable ) and so artful was 
the author of them, that they were of a character 
which I could not disclose. I was therefore almost 
distracted, and concluded that there was not such 



JONATHxVN HUTCHINSON. 93 

another ease in the world as mine. How far this 
might be I cannot tell, though it is probable that it 
also was false, and intended to finish the business of 
driving me to despair; for ever since I became more 
willing to make the best use of my afflictions, either 
by endeavoring to bear them patiently, or by seeking 
and accepting a hand of help, I have seldom met 
with a trial that has not its parallel in the experiences 
of others ; leading me to conclude that no new thing 
has happened to me ; and that according to the con- 
soling language of 1 Cor. x. 13, no temptation has 
taken me but such as is common to man. 

" I am aware that self is a dangerous enemy, and 
requires much watching against • but as in our specu- 
lations we are very prone to push even good things 
too far, I am not quite certain that we do not in this 
way sometimes refine too much upon what we call 
self-love, and for fear of indulging it improperly, 
really refuse or pass by the comfort, help, and strength 
which are mercifully designed us. The being com- 
manded to love others as ourselves, appears to be so 
far from precluding a necessary care for our own pre- 
servation and happiness, that the manner in which 
it is supposed we shall, and the degree in which it is 
allowed we may, love ourselves, seem not only to be 
recognized by this simple and sublime precept, but 
to be made the standard and criterion of our feelings, 
and of our behavior towards others. And surely as 
it is lawful for a drowning man to use means for his 
deliverance, so surely do I believe that it is not only 
allowable, but a duty for the sinking mind to accept, 



94 LETTERS OF 

with, gratitude to its great Preserver, any of the va- 
rious means which He may be pleased to offer for its 
assistance, amongst which the records and communi- 
cations of those who have travelled, or who are tra- 
velling the same path, may form no inconsiderable 
part. Witness in this respect the incalculable value 
of the Holy Scriptures, as well as the oral and writ- 
ten testimonies even of our cotemporaries. 

" We have a chain of evidence, and a cloud of 
witnesses, male and female, old and young, high and 
low, learned and unlearned, all testifying to a truth, 
from which it seems equally difficult to withhold our 
assent, or refuse to accept consolation, that in all our 
baptisms and exercises no new thing has happened 
to us." 



" T o J. and K. Foster. 

"1825, 7 mo. 11. — It need not surprise us, if a 
friendship, disinterested as I think ours has been 
from its commencement, should be rather mellowed 
than impaired by time; or in other words, if that 
love which began in natural affinities and associations 
should be improved by something better : and that 
if we are favored to grow in grace, the operation of 
this sublime principle will not only add to, but ratify 
and purify every amiable and good disposition where- 
of we are capable, of which love to God and love to 
each other will be acknowledged to stand foremost. 
And judging by the tenderness with which of later 
time I often remember you, in connexion with the 



JONATH A N HUTCHINSON. 95 

great uncertainty of our all meeting again in muta- 
bility, 1 have thought it possible that the feelings to 
which I have alluded may not only exist, but have 
an infinite expansion beyond the grave. I am aware, 
however, that this is among the secret things which 
it is not given us in our present state to know ) yet 
the contemplation is so delightful to the Christian, 
and the hope so prevalent in the breast wherein at 
seasons hope deigns to make its abode, that it is dif- 
ficult, and I trust not necessary, to dismiss either 
one or the other entirely from our minds. 

" I have mentioned hope, by which I mean the 
hope which maketh not ashamed, and which rests 
entirely on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, as an 
occasional rather than a constant visitant, for such 
indeed I find it. Yes, my dear friends, to you I am 
free to confess that there are times when a remem- 
brance of the sins of my youth, a sense of present 
infirmities, and a feeling of utter unworthiness of 
Divine regard, so press upon me, that whilst I cannot 
hope, I feel it to be too awful a thing to despair. 
Thus circumstanced, I find the only alternative to be, 
waiting in as much stillness as I can, and watching 
unto prayer, for the return of that morning light, 
before which the mists of the night flee away, and 
which, as patience has been sufficiently abode in, has 
never yet, and I trust never will, deceive or disap- 
point me, though I may sometimes, at least accord- 
ing to my own limited conceptions, have had to wait 
long. 

"I express myself on this important subject with 



96 LETTERS OF 

the greater freedom, because of the humble spiritual 
views which I believe you entertain of yourselves — 
because of those castings down and disquietings 
whereof David speaks, and to which the weight of 
years may make you increasingly subject; and lastly, 
because of my own experience in these deep humi- 
liations ; being at the present juncture just emerging 
from one of those darksome plunges to which I have 
alluded, and from which, had I not been thus favored 
a little to ascend, it is not probable you would now 
have heard from me. As it is, and I hope you will 
be enabled to rejoice with me, I have been enabled 
to adopt, as a morning hymn of thanksgiving and 
praise, much of the beautiful language of the one 
hundred and third Psalm, which you will find on 
perusal to be full of consolation and encouragement 
to the exercised mind." 



"To Richard Cockin. 

"1830, 4 mo. 22— That sufferings abound in the 
world, in the church, and in private life, neither of 
us has need to be reminded, and therefore, though 
it is well to guard every point, I have thought thy 
caution, that, i elderly persons should beware of 
supineness/ may not be so applicable to thee and 
me, as the danger of a contrary extreme from undue 
discouragement, because of the trials that surround 
us, and of fainting — not sleeping — under the bur- 
dens of our day. 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. \) i 

" For myself, I may acknowledge that herein con- 
sists my greatest apprehension of falling short in the 
path of duty; so much so, that sometimes, when 
hard pressed from without, and a sense of divine 
support low within, I fly to the Scriptures for refuge, 
and am at seasons not a little comforted and strength- 
ened by so doing. On one of these occasions lately, 
my grain of faith and hope was increased, by a clearer 
view of the parable of the unjust Judge and the im- 
portunate Widow, than I remember to have had be- 
fore. If a wicked mortal, from no worthier a motive 
than his own ease, would grant a petition, how much 
more probable, even to the eye of reason, is it, that a 
Being, whose very essence is love, and who is clothed 
with every perfect and adorable attribute, should 
listen to the prayers of his poor and afflicted chil- 
dren, and, in the language of the text, avenge his 
own elect, who cry day and night unto Him ; though, 
to their fearful hearts, He may seem at times to delay 
his coming, and bear long with them. 

" Innumerable are the passages, both in the Old 
and New Testament Scriptures, from which the 
Christian traveller may derive comfort and support, 
in low and trying seasons ; especially from such pre- 
cious promises and assurances of the blessed Re- 
deemer as these : i Fear not, little flock, for it is your 
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom/ 
(Luke xii. 32.) ' Let not your heart be troubled ; 
ye believe in God, believe also in me/ (John xiv. 1.) 
And again, l Let not your heart be troubled, neither 
let it be afraid/ (John xiv. 27.) Indeed the whole 
9 



98 LETTERS OF 

of this chapter is a series of encouragement, instruc- 
tion, and comfort. 

" What a treasure, then, is the Bible ! This is so 
much my real sentiment, that I am not ashamed to 
own to thee, that in these seasons of obscurity and 
temptation, which may perhaps assail many of us, 
when invisible things appear remote, and are seen as 
through a glass darkly; in some of these times of 
sore buffetting and trial, I have been ready to lay my 
hands upon the sacred volume, and exclaim, Well ! 
here is something tangible, even to my senses, to be 
at once seen, felt, and understood • containing narra- 
tive, doctrine, and truth; and altogether forming 
such a degree of evidence of its divine authority, 
and of the eternal realities whereof it assures us, as 
I trust neither the sophistry of man nor the malice 
of the devil shall ever prevail with me to doubt, still 
less to renounce and disbelieve." 



"To Carolina Harris. 

"1831, 7 mo. 27- — In addressing an ' elect lady/ 
I think the beloved disciple tells her, that he rejoiced 
greatly because he found of her children walking in 
the truth ; an experience that I apprehend may have 
been realized by many a parent and elder since his 
day, both on account of their own, and the offspring 
of their dear friends. Would that none of them had 
proved the reverse of this experience to be equally 
true, namely, that, in the course of their pilgrimage 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 99 

they had found no greater sorrow than in beholding 
so many who were endeared to them by the tender 
ties of nature and of friendship, walking not in, but 
out of this most excellent rule of faith and life — the 
truth as it is in Jesus. 

" Could young persons be made fully sensible how 
much it is in their power to increase or diminish the 
happiness of age, that it is for them either to strew 
its pillow with roses or to plant it with thorns; did 
they believe this, I think some of them would pause 
before deciding on the course they take; and though 
it might be at considerable sacrifice of inclination to 
duty, pursue a very different one. For that the grey 
hairs of many a parent and parental friend, have, 
since the times of the Patriarch who anticipated such 
a close of his life, been accelerated by sorrow to the 
grave, is, I fear, a fact too evident to be doubted. 
Yet even here we can scarcely forbear exclaiming, 
the excellence, the paramount superiority of the 
Christian religion, above every system or scheme de- 
vised by the wisdom or the strength of man. In the 
most extreme cases, Christianity offers a relief and a 
remedy to its afflicted votaries of every character and 
under every circumstance. They find present relief 
in resignation and hope, and ultimately a full recom- 
pense for all their sufferings in the ineffable felicity, 
and the crown immortal, which await the successful 
issue of their warfare. 

" So that whether the believer's sorrows be of a 
domestic nature, which I think are the bitterest, or 
proceed from a more extraneous source ; whether he 



100 LETTERS OF 

languish under the severity of parents, the unkind- 
ness of a companion, the undutifulness of children, 
or the unfaithfulness of a friend, still, under any or 
every of these trials, he is not left destitute ; an arm 
underneath supports him, and the language of his 
trembling soul falters on his tongue : i If the little 
span of my life must be spent in grief, and my years 
in skliin^ ; if indeed I must die a lin merino- death 
upon the painful cross of sorrow, yet enable me, I 
beseech Thee, Lord, as with my latest breath to 
whisper, Thy will, thy holy and adorable will, and 
not mine, be done/ 

" I trust I am not insensible to the solemnity of a 
subject into which I have been somewhat inadvert- 
ently led by a desire to point towards a mark, which, 
who would venture to say they have attained, yet 
who but would acknowledge that it deeply concerns 
them to press after it ? 

" The lamentation by the prophet Isaiah, (chapter 
the fifty-first) — i There is none to guide her among 
all the sons whom she has brought forth ; neither is 
there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons 
that she hath brought up/ is descriptive of the state 
of Jerusalem, when she had neither sons nor daugh- 
ters to care for her. I have sometimes thought this 
may not only be applicable to a city or a church, but 
even to the pious parent or guardian of disobedient 
and gainsaying children. But waiving this particular 
point, there have been times in my experience, if I 
may venture to refer to it, when the three last verses 
of the chapter just referred to have afforded me pe- 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 101 

culiar support, as being figuratively descriptive of or 
comparable to the bottom of Jordan, preservation 
there, and bringing up a stone of memorial from 
thence. that in every future swelling of this 
mighty stream, should such be permitted, I may 
submissively enter the flood ; and as with my head 
just above water stand still the appointed time ! 

" This language would probably appear mysterious, 
if not unintelligible, to many a pious Christian, who 
may never have been plunged into the depth to which 
it alludes, but mercifully conducted on his spiritual 
journey, by a shorter and easier course. Yet to those, 
and such I believe there are, who have been safely 
brought through these conflicting experiences; to 
such a reader, the being put in remembrance of what 
themselves have passed through, may be sweetly har- 
monious, as a morning or an evening song, on the 
banks of deliverance." 



"To J. and H. C . Backhouse. 

" 1831, 9 mo. 29. — I sincerely hope the enemy 
of peace, who has sown discord in some other places, 
may not be suffered to introduce it here. And yet 
I am sometimes jealous \ and in these unsettled times, 
when everything that can be shaken seems to be in 
motion, I have been of late more than ordinarily 
jealous, lest he who beguiled Eve by his subtlety, 
should by any means get an entrance among us, if not 
as a lion or as a bear, yet under the equally dangerous 
9* 



102 LETTERS OF 

transformation of an angel of light, as a guise more 
adapted to our present improved state of education 
and intellectual refinement. 

" We know that learning lias its appropriate temp- 
tations, and knowledge its peculiar dangers; so that, 
I think, with all our acknowledged advantages, we 
have more need of watchfulness against being puffed 
up or bewildered by them, than might be the case 
with our rude forefathers, though, doubtless, they 
had their temptations and trials fitted to their state. 
For I quite believe that both the unlearned and the 
learned, the wise and the ignorant, have one common 
enemy and one common salvation ; and that this sal- 
vation is of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, through 
the blessed, eternal Spirit, to which I think the New 
Testament bears abundant witness. And to you, my 
valued friends, I can make the appeal, do we not find 
it true in experience ? Oh, what should we be with- 
out the appointed Saviour, in all his divine offices, 
and in the completeness of his character ? 

"As to Unitarianism, I consider it in many cases 
to be the first step towards what thou hast justly de- 
nominated something further on the road to destruc- 
tion. I have a very low opinion of that man's prac- 
tical and consistent Theism who denies the divinity 
of Christ. For what signify sophistical distinctions, 
or the most sublime epithets and exalted character, 
as applied only to the Father, if we deny the Son, 
who has declared himself to be the way to Him ? 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 103 



TO J. J. GrURNEY. 

" 1832, 4 mo. 20. — I sometimes think, (or ought 
I to say imagine ?) that such redeemed spirits as, 
after traversing this world's wilderness, and crossing 
the deep waters of Jordan, are mercifully admitted 
into the heavenly Canaan, a land flowing with milk 
and honey; that these happy souls may there be 
classified, either as stars according to their magnitude 
and glory, as vessels by their various capacities for 
receiving and containing the ineffable felicity of 
which all shall be full, or which is an idea distinct 
from either of these, as minds possessing different 
temperaments, according to their affinities and attrac- 
tions. In either of the two former cases I can easily 
believe my own situation must be a very low, yet 
possibly not a less thankful one than that of the rapt 
seraph, who with brighter effulgence, not more ardent 
love, adores and burns in nearer approach to the 
throne of God and of the Lamb : but should my last 
supposition, congeniality, prove to be the best, then 
comes the pleasing dream, that, all other destinations 
apart, even we may rejoice and sing together. Thou 
wilt perceive as I do, that this is all speculation — I 
think there is no heresy in it, and I hope that be- 
tween us it may be harmless, and having heaven for 
its subject, cheering; for, however unworthy we may 
be, 'tis sweet to think of heaven. 

" . . . That we want power as well as precept, may 
perhaps be considered an axiom in Christian divinity. 
I have of late been impressed with the insufficiency 
9 



104 LETTERS OF 

of precept, however imparted, without accompanying 
ability to reduce it to practice, convinced as I am 
that not all I have heard from my fellow mortals, or 
read in the best of books, would enable me to sup- 
port the character of a practical Christian, without 
something also of that substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen; which the apostle 
appears to consider, not only as the basis, but the 
essence of a faith superior to that of the understand- 
ing, in connexion and co-operation with which, I 
think, we can only receive power to become the sons 
of God. I cannot doubt, my clear friend, but that 
whilst thou art diligently and earnestly engaged in 
unfolding the doctrines of Christianity, and illus- 
trating the principles of our peculiar profession of it, 
thou often findest it necessary to recommend the at- 
tention of thy hearers and readers to the root of 
both, Christ within the hope of glory, without whom 
by his good Spirit in the heart, neither can doctrine 
be rightly received and understood, nor principle 
brought as it ought to be, into daily life and conver- 
sation. 

" < He that believeth on the Son of God hath the 
witness in himself/ said an apostle, and this witness 
I think is an evidence of invisible things, something 
that cannot be shaken, of universal application and 
benefit, on which the soul may safely rest. Were it 
not for recurrence to, and a reliance upon this un- 
speakable gift, I am free to confess that there are 
moments in which almost everything else seems in- 
adequate to my support — seasons wherein both the 



JONATHAN II U T C II INBOX: 105 

mystery of godliness and the mystery of iniquity, or 
in other words, the inscrutable nature of the Divine 
economy in the government of this lower world, with 
that greatest of all paradoxes, the conduct of mis- 
guided and sinful man, would greatly perplex and 
endanger me. 

" As it is, sustained, I trust, by a portion of the 
faith alluded to, I struggle on, resolving what is 
strange and embarrassing in human conduct, into 
the trials and temptations attendant on a fallible and 
corrupt, yet free agent, in a state of probation, be- 
lieving literally and in simplicity, such portions of 
the sacred records as may be opened to my under- 
standing, and receiving with humble reverence what 
may be ^secret and unrevealecl in holy writ, on the 
testimony and faithfulness of its divine Author, of 
whose existence, supremacy, and wisdom, I have been 
assured, not merely or principally by hearing or read- 
ing, but by the too generally despised mediums — or 
rather sources — feeling and experience; mediums 
which many even among the pious and learned, are 
too much afraid of accrediting, lest they should be- 
come, or be accounted, enthusiasts, fanatics, &c. ; 
though by this dereliction from that essential faith 
of which we have spoken, and which is too obvious 
in some of their writings, they appear to me to fall 
short of the truth, and to deprive themselves and 
others of much good. 

21st. — I went a few weeks since to Huncton, to 
visit our late mutually esteemed friend A. M. G., 
when she was near the close of her life. How sweetly 



106 LETTERS OF 

on this occasion, I remembered Addison, * See in 
what peace a Christian can die ! ' and Young, 

" ' The chamber where the good man meets his fate, 

Is privileged beyond the common walk of virtuous life, 
Quite on the verge of heaven.' 

" I believe feelings correspondent with these ani- 
mating expressions were at times very prevalent, 
during the rather lingering and painful illness of our 
worthy friend. I cannot help feeling how my valued 
coteinporaries, one by one, glide from my view, whilst 
I am at present left in the enjoyment of a degree of 
health and strength, which — my age and what often 
passes within considered — almost surprises me. So 
true it is, that body sometimes supports mind, and 
vice versa : this is encouraging, when we see how 
both often languish and sink together." 



"To J O S I A II FORSTER. 

"1832, 5 mo. 4. — Connected with the subject of 
death, I may tell thee, that one evening lately I went, 
as I am occasionally wont to do, to visit the little 
cemetery in which, for many generations, the remains 
of my forefathers have been laid; where also rest 
those of my parents, my wife, and three of my chil- 
dren, and where probably, ere long, my own dust 
shall mingle with theirs. On returning homewards 
at an hour when the cottagers were in their houses, 
the birds and beasts reposing, and the weather per- 
fectly calm, I was struck by the surrounding scene, 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 107 

which seemed as it were to place me alone in the 
world. Thus circumstanced, my mind was almost 
unconsciously raised — for it seems as if we could not 
help localizing even invisible things — towards that 
home beyond the skies, to which from infancy' to age, 
through all life's vicissitudes, it has been led at times 
to aspire, sometimes with hope, often with fear and 
discouragement. 

" Perhaps partly from temperament, partly from 
rural habits, and partly from age, which loves and 
wants quietness, or it may be, from their united in- 
fluence — but. I can scarcely tell thee, how thankful I 
sometimes feel for the retirement of my home ; that 
lodge in the wilderness which thou hast seen. Here 
I can not only see a coach pass in the distance, with- 
out hearing the noise of its wheels, but which I value 
much more, here I can sigh in secret, and only emerge 
from my obscurity, when, as it may be well they 
sometimes do, circumstances draw me reluctantly out 
of it. And yet I hope I am neither an ascetic nor a 
misanthrope; I am sure I would not affect these 
characters. 



"TO J. J. GURNEY. 

" 1833, 10 mo. 8. — Thy account of your late Quar- 
terly Meeting, as well as thy information respecting 
divers absent friends, who are mutually dear to us, 
were, so far as I am capable of receiving them, mat- 
ters of comfort and encouragement to me. For 
though it is true that my present state of mind is 



108 LETTERS OF 

deservedly a low one, and the elements seem in com- 
motion around me, yet I still am permitted to hope 
that my feet are established upon that rock, from 
which they shall never be entirely removed ; and a 
single ray of this hope, to those who have known 
despair, is an unspeakable mercy. I was glad of thy 
reference to dear Priscilla's hymns. This little vo- 
lume has long been a treasure to me, almost next to 
the Bible. I can hardly tell which it suits .best, my 
spiritual state or my failing memory. The one thou 
pointedst out is indeed both beautiful and excellent : 
and under another class, headed Conflict, what depths 
of mysterious experience are developed. The first 
time I remember to have read Prayer answered by 
Crosses , I was astonished at its unfoldings. How 
many times I have read it since, both in the lines of 
the book and in those of experience, I cannot tell \ 
but I find them to agree so fully, that my surprise 
now is, that it should be possible for such a descrip- 
tion to be so realized. 

" As I intend no complaint by the last remark, so 
I hope it will administer no discouragement. I be- 
lieve that, with myself, thou art reconciled to the 
doctrine of Christ crucified; and that, if we would 
be his followers, we must expect to suffer a variety 
of afflictions, both from within and from without. I 
have sometimes thought when under trial, and found 
the thought a strengthening one, that if, according 
to the prophet, He, our adorable Redeemer, did no 
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it 
pleased the Lord to bruise Him, and put Him to 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 109 

grief, with many other expressions in the same chap- 
ter of the like import ; should we, poor sinful crea- 
tures, repine at a measure of suffering so far short 
of his, and also below our deserts ; and so needful, 
perhaps, for maturing our Christian character, and 
preparing us for an admission into the kingdom of 
rest and peace. As my race is not. yet completed, 
thou mayest be ready to wonder, all circumstances 
considered, at my boldness. But whatever may here- 
after befall me, such is the present frame of my mind, 
that I am encouraged, with reverence and gratitude, 
I trust, thus to commune with thee, my endeared 
friend, for whom I desire all spiritual preservation 
and prosperity." 



"To J. J. Gtjrney. 

"1834, 3 mo. 1. — Thou hast expressed a desire 
for my sympathetic remembrances in the prosecution 
of thy arduous engagements in London and its vici- 
nity. These thou hast I believe daily, how much 
oftener I cannot say. One thing I know, that, if 
ever my heart be enabled to ascend by living aspira- 
tions to the throne of grace, I desire to bear thee 
upon it, and that thy true interests of every kind 
may be inseparably connected with every breathing 
and every cry for myself and others, who are the 
most near and dear to me. So that were I indeed a 
father, as thou art willing to suppose, perhaps I could 
do no more. 

" On the very important subject of prayer, Isome- 
10 



110 LETTERS OF 

times think, that, were the Holy Scriptures, which I 
increasingly value, sufficiently read and contemplated, 
without superseding or disparaging either secret or 
public supplication, by such a practice, we should 
have no need of other Liturgies ; as in those inva- 
luable records may be found, not only descriptions 
of almost every possible case and circumstance into 
which the mind of man can be brought; but con- 
fessions, praises, and petitions suited to all the varie- 
ties of these innumerable changes, which are often 
supplied to us in the needful time, and with wonder- 
ful adaptation, by that principle, or gift of grace, so 
appropriately denominated, the good remembrancer. 

"Accordingly, may I presume to say, my own mind 
seems just now to dwell with some degree of rest 
and hope on two separate portions of sacred writ, the 
universal prayer of the poor publican and the more 
particular and private one of David, where he thus 
implores, ' Cast me not off in the time of old age ; 
forsake me not when my strength faileth/ I have 
called the first of these ejaculations universal, be- 
cause when some knowledge of God and of ourselves 
is attained, I suppose there is scarcely another form 
of words so congenial to the contrited heart, or that 
when thus humbled so unconsciously and sponta- 
neously escapes from the trembling lips. The last, I 
call private or particular, as more especially belong- 
ing to that advanced stage of human life at which I 
am now arrived. 

" As I often find it easier to copy than to compose, 
I sometimes supply my own deficiency of stock from 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. Ill 

other quarters ; and in this way I propose occupying 
a part of the present sheet by the following extract 
from Henry Martyn, who says : 

" ' It has been well observed by one,* who took a 
profound view of human nature, that there are three 
very different orbits in which great men move and 
shine, and that each share of greatness has its re- 
spective admirers. There are those who as heroes 
fill the world with their exploits ; they are greeted 
with the acclamations of the multitude ; they are en- 
nobled whilst living, and their names descend with 
lustre to posterity. Others there are who, by the 
brilliancy of their imagination, or the vigor of their 
intellect, attain to honor of a purer and higher kind : 
the fame of these is confined to a more select num- 
ber ; all have a discriminating sense of their merit. 
A third description there is, distinct from both the 
former, and far more exalted than either, whose ex- 
cellence consists in a renunciation of themselves, and 
a compassionate love for mankind. In this order the 
Saviour of the world was pleased to appear; and those 
persons obtain the highest rank in it, who by his 
grace are enabled most closely to follow his example/ 

" I very much admire the correctness of these 
views, particularly as regards the last, which, speak- 
ing religiously, I think is quite the climax of human 
excellence. In the class thus defined, I therefore, 
not only desire that thou, my dear friend, mayst ever 
be found ; but that all thy labors by word or writing 

* Pascal. 



112 LETTERS OF 

may have a uniform tendency to produce and to che- 
rish such true disciples of Christ — of which, what- 
ever she may think ; the world has much need. And 
whilst it is admitted that such characters must not 
seek great things for themselves, and that they need 
not expect the distinctions of earthly grandeur or 
fame, either on a throne, in the academy, or in the 
senate ; but on the contrary, in following their de- 
spised and dishonored Master, may occasionally have 
to appear as spectacles to the world, and to angels, 
and to men ; still I must maintain the sublime and 
superior nature, both of their present reward, and 
of their future prospects, which are no less than a 
foretaste of heavenly peace, even in this World, and 
in that which is to come, life everlasting. In endea- 
voring to secure these, is it not worth while to make 
some sacrifices, and even if it must be so, to suffer 
persecution, by being accounted as the filth of the 
earth, and the offscouring of all things ? 

" I think thou wilt now perceive, that I have no 
objection to thy preaching ' Christ crucified/ even 
should it be attended at times with fear and trem- 
bling : — exercises which the apostle Paul not only 
recognises, but has in one instance placed in a very 
high connexion, no less than the important business 
of the soul's salvation. We need not then be either 
afraid or ashamed of this honorable distinction, which 
perhaps often cometh from God only." 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 113 

"TO JOSIAH FORSTER. 

1834, 9 mo. 13. — How necessary it appears for 
those whose standing in society scarcely admits of 
their being indifferent', or even inactive spectators, 
to be watchful and careful of every step they take, 
not only for the sake of 'others, but for their own 
sakes, that so none of these shakings may move them 
from that sure foundation, on which the feet of their 
minds may have once been mercifully placed ! 

"And as I believe the false notion of c once in 
grace, ever in grace/ makes no part either of thy 
creed or raine, I cannot doubt but that we both feel 
the necessity for continual watchfulness unto prayer, 
that we may be favored with wisdom and strength 
to stand in every time of need and of trial, whatever 
be its nature. For the longer we live, the more sen- 
sible we probably each of us are, that it is not by 
past experience, or even by those works of righteous- 
ness, (and such I think they may be called,) which 
through divine assistance we may in days past have 
obediently performed, that the work of the soul's 
salvation is wrought out, and completed : but that 
the repeated washing of regeneration, and the fresh 
renewings of the Holy Ghost are absolutely neces- 
sary to the carrying on and perfecting of this all- 
important concern. 

u It may be worthy of observation that the houses 
described in the parable, as those of wise and foolish 
builders, were equally exposed to the storm, though 
10* H 



114 LETTERS OF 

their end was so different. But in the full considera- 
tion of this important passage of Scripture, we must, 
I apprehend, have regard both to the free agency 
and fallibility of man, by supposing that, although 
his feet may have been set even upon a rock that was 
higher than himself, and his goings established so 
long as he continued thereupon ; by admitting also 
that whilst in a state of probation, he has the power 
of changing his position ) and from his natural weak- 
ness and corruption, acted upon as they are, he is 
under a continual liability of being either drawn or 
seduced'from it; so that it is only as divine ability 
is sought and obtained to endure and not yield to the 
tempest, that his building, however fair and specious, 
can possibly stand through all the vicissitudes of 
time, especially as clanger is sometimes found to lurk, 
unperceived by merely human vision, in the very 
calm and sunshine of life. 

"There are two objects, which though outwardly 
very dissimilar, yet taken figuratively, seem to have 
considerable bearing upon Christian experience. A 
vessel that with broken mast and torn sails, is still 
kept steady by ballast ; and the eagle, which, after 
having had its plumage sorely ruffled by weather, 
gains the top of a promontory, from whence, relying 
upon her stability, she views and braves the storm, 
waiting in pensive yet majestic solitude the return 
of a serener sky. I sometimes have thought as ap- 
plied to an aged pilgrim, (say any one but myself,) 
these lines are very beautiful and appropriate : — 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 115 

" 'As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm ; 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its bead.' 

"Attended however as I am by fears and failings, 
I must not soar either with the eagle, or with the 
saint ) and I am therefore now and then not a little 
encouraged, when dear friends can hope for me, that 
which I scarcely dare hope for myself. At the same 
time it would be ungrateful to the Lord, and might 
seem discouraging to his people, were I to withhold 
the reverent acknowledgment, that there are seasons 
in which I am enabled to adopt this language of the 
Psalmist, ( Blessed be Grod who has not turned away 
my prayer, nor his mercy from me/ " 



"TO J. J. GlJRNEY. 

u 1834, 10 mo. 25. — Being rather tottering, I do not 
see what I can do better, than place myself between 
thee and thy dear Mary, as those who I believe will 
be both able and willing to lend support to an old 
friend, until he recover breath to pursue, or strength 
to finish his course, whichever may in wisdom or in 
mercy be appointed him. 

" The plain truth is, that, owing partly perhaps to 
the autumnal weather, I have been rather unwell for 
the last week or ten days, which has kept me mostly 
within doors, and twice from meeting, so that from 
the manner in which the cold and damp air affects 



*+" LETTERS OP 

my chest, I am apprehensive of being obliged to take 
up my winter quarters earlier tban usual. 

"I have also — without any additionally obvious 
reason, and amidst all, with very much to be thank- 
ful for, both to Providence and my friends — been a 
good deal tried with mental suffering, so that some- 
times I have thought I could comprehend, if I did 
not experience, the import of these significant lines : 
"'Can the poor heart always ache? 

No : — the tortured nerve will languish 
Or the strings of life must break.' 

" What a favor it is, as we probably each of us 
know, when the strained nerve of sensibility relaxes 
into tenderness, or, in language more familiar with 
our profession and character, when exercises difficult 
to bear, and beyond our own power to remove are 
lightened by the hand of that Saviour, who promised 
rest to the weary and heavy-laden soul, or when per- 
haps for a season they may be entirely taken away by 
a gracious God, who, saith the apostle, is faithful, and 
will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are 
able to bear. 

"In seeking for the cause of these baptisms— and 
this, however vain it may appear, is a thing we can 
scarcely avoid — a dim light seems to arise from the 
consideration that, as I certainly 'have not attained 
neither am already perfect,' it consequently follows 
that the important work of regeneration may be, must 
be, incomplete, and that perhaps the almost nameless 
feelings alluded to, are a part of the sufferings at- 
tendant on this progressive and necessary work of 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 117 

forming that entirely new creature, or spiritual cha- 
racter, of which it is said, e Old things are passed 
away; behold, all things are become new; and all 
things are of God/ 

" From the first surrender of the human will to the 
guidance and government of the Holy Spirit, I appre- 
hend the birth immortal takes its date; and so long- 
as our will continues to be resigned and subject to 
the Divine will, though it may be attended with many 
interruptions, and by no means exempt from proba- 
tion, yet the new creature gradually goes forward, 
through every change, in summer and winter, by 
night and by day ; so that first the little child, next 
the young man, then the strong man, are successively 
produced ; until, finally, should natural life be con- 
tinued, and obedience keep pace with knowledge, the 
measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ is 
attained. 

u It is however a cheering and encouraging 
thought, which I sometimes indulge, at least on be- 
half of others, especially for pious young people, or 
newly-converted persons, that, at whatever stage of 
his character or growth, the real Christian may be 
summoned from this world, he is safe and in a state 
of acceptance. In that sense I understand the pass- 
age, ' The child shall die an hundred years old/ &c. 
But let not this view, for I think it need not, cause 
any to neglect their daily business of watching unto 
prayer, or induce them to slacken in their spiritual 
journey; rather let it stimulate them to go on from 
grace to grace, that so their day's work having kept 



118 LETTERS OF 

pace with the day, whenever called, they may be 
prepared. 

" I have been pleased to hear that dear Mary has 
received the acknowledgment of Friends as a minis- 
ter; and were I to add a word of fatherly advice, it 
might be this : that, as a servant of Christ, she en- 
deavor to show all good fidelity, adorning the doctrine 
of God her Saviour in all things : and on the other 
hand, that she never, as I fear is sometimes attempted, 
decorate self with Ms inestimable jewels, which are 
committed to us in trust, for use, not for ornament ; 
this practice I believe seldom answers. We had 
much better in simplicity and sincerity, seek only to 
serve and honor the Lord, leaving it to Him to honor 
us in the way He sees best ; and should we not re- 
ceive it from our fellow mortals, if we are faithful, 
He will bestow upon us that which is far better, even 
the honor that cometh from Himself only. Let her 
diligently and carefully attend to her own precious 
gift. t Mind your calling, brethren/ is an excellent 
motto. 

" On my way homeward from our late Quarterly 
Meeting, while stopping to bait at Swineshead, I 
walked into the burial-ground, called the church- 
yard, where amongst names and other inscriptions, 
i spelt by the unlettered muse/ I at length discovered 
something like a diamond, which pleased me so 
much, that, borrowing a pencil, and resting on a 
neighboring tombstone, I copied it, and intended 
herewith to send it to thee. Independently of its 
composition, which perhaps thou mayest think with 



JONATHAN HUTCHINSON. 119 

me is of no very common order, it possesses an in- 
trinsic advantage, from being, as I am well assured, 
historically true, which cannot be said of epitaphs 
and eulogies. Possibly Mary may find in plain prose 
the short and simple annals of this pious poor woman 
amongst her tracts, headed 'Amelia Gale, Swines- 
head, Lincolnshire/ 

"Inscription over the grave of Amelia Gale, late of 
Swineslieady copied from the stone, the Wth of 10th 
mo. 1834. 

" 'Alive, when all her kin were dead, 
Alone in this dark world she stood, 
Like the scathed oak that lifts its head, 
Where flourished once a mighty wood. 

Yet ere the sinner passed from earth, 
Who long had drawn unhallowed breath, 

The Gospel gave her second birth, 
To save her from the second death. 

Then lived she to herself no more, 
But loving much, since much forgiven, 

Her Saviour's cross she meekly bore, 
And took the Calvary road to heaven. 

And still she lives to Him, though dead, 

For while her memory survives, 
Others, by her example led, 

May show her living in their lives.' 

"Grave as the subject of these lines is, they may 
possibly brighten some that preceded them ; but how- 
ever this may be, I hope you (for I have had both in 
view from beginning to end) will accept the whole 



120 LETTERS, ETC. 

as a token of my affectionate remembrance and un- 
changing love. 

" P. S. I have been informed that you are likely 
soon to resume your weighty religious engagement in 
and about London, in which it is my sincere desire, 
that the Lord may be your ever-present helper, and 
his beloved Son, Christ Jesus, your All in all. How 
comprehensive is this idea ! 



THE END. 



